[wferrell]

Are you counting employees that joined after the 1.5B valuation?

I am sure they made money but not what was expected (exiting above 1.5B).

How are you determining par for the course liq preference of 1.0? Where does that data come from? I ask genuinely as the small sample of companies I know of personally have liq preferences greater than 1.

[y_gy]

Liq pref > 1 was extremely uncommon in the last 5 years.

Employees who joined after the 1.5B valuation will have made money because the strike on their options is set by the 409A, which will have been far, far less than 1.5B. Preferred stock price is not the same as 409A common price.

[depereo]

if they had options, i.e the ability to purchase stock at, say, $10, but the company was sold with that stock being worth $9 only, then exercising those options would lose them money.