[leehuffman]

You don’t sell options, you obtain financing to exercise options, with said financing backed by the converter stock produced from the options you’re exercising. Terms are fucking _brutal_, but when you’ve spent a decade at a company with no exit in sight, your hand can be forced. Hence why there’s a market for this.

[Retric]

Brutal terms, but they can be terms where if the company fails to IPO you aren’t in debt. It’s just a question of how much risk you want to take on vs how much upside you need to give up.

Worst case you can always exercise whatever portion of your options you can afford and accept the inherent risks for doing so.