[Eridrus]

If the product is being shut down, it is definitely not a big acquisition.

The only way to be sure it's worth something is if a secondary market exists for the shares. This is only going to be true for later stage companies, not early stage ones though.

I think the best advice on the topic of early stage options is this blog post: https://www.benkuhn.net/optopt/

The TL;DR for me is: Be more picky about the company than the specific comp package. When you're there, find as much as you can about the revenue growth and retention metrics (assuming B2B), and quit after your cliff if it doesn't look like it is going well enough to justify the valuation.