Smaller percentage of a much larger company. It’s a speculative market right now which helps. Most of these startups you’re seeing in the news are going public at $5B-$10B plus valuations. The big ones for $50B+
I became a millionaire with options from a startup IPO and hardly feel that I won the lottery. There’s thousands of employees at dozens of private companies that either went public this year or will next that will be in the same position.
Certainly it helps that there’s a deluge of liquidity in the financial markets right now that has completely changed the calculus from even just a year ago. I would certainly be much more optimistic now than any other recent point in time if you work at a company with good growth prospects.
I forward exercised my options when i joined at a strike price of $.13. the stock is now over $20 in private markets and will IPO next year.