I … oof. I'm sure this stuff does look good from the outside. From experience, it is not anything close to that.

Most stock options have short expirations (10 year is still very uncommon). There is no "now vs. later" choice, it's a "now or never choice"

All of these deals require approval by the company. Which means you don't get to choose the firm, you get to deal with the firm they approve of.

That kind of deal is in the 1% of deals they make. Almost all require option holders either repay loans or take on significant risk.

I know this stuff sounds great on paper, in practice it is another world. Not to mention the absurdity of giving away half or more of your gains to a private equity firm from options you earned, just because the company has made a weird rule.