[askafriend]

This is a really fair and important point - I appreciate you bringing it up.

I've seen a couple of Stripe secondaries before so I assume that some set of employees are able to transact on the secondary market.

However, important disclaimer that not all companies have the same terms - and the terms can change depending on when you were hired. Startup equity isn't absurdly complicated, but it very much is situation-specific which is where the confusion usually comes from.

[spoonjim]

They could be investor secondary sales which won't have the same restrictions.