[throaway893]

>5 years down the road you own 20% of a $1M

What a horrible fate. They only got five years of salary plus 200k extra. I'll include them in my prayers (just kidding, I don't pray).

[icedchai]

Except the "$200K" is purely paper, and has an expected value of closer to zero. Remember, common shareholders are the last ones to get paid. Investors have preferences and get paid back first (often with interest.)

Also realize you were probably forced to take a pay cut and have a below average salary due to cost-cutting measures from the board. We'll ignore the non-financial problems, like tons of stress, complaining employees demanding more equity because you couldn't give them raises...

No, it's not a good situation.

[wordpad25]

They also probably worked many 100 hour weeks while they could've earned more and worked a lot less with less stress

[rbranson]

That's how risk works. The FAANG employee friends have exactly a 0% chance at a 9-figure outcome. They'll easily be at top decile if they pull a nominal $10M+ post-tax in 20 years.