If we let employees access liquidity events by having the board organizing restricted secondary sales every year, then their options will have a higher probability to have real value?
After all, VCs have lot less risk than employees... We can't diversify our portfolio like they can. They want to invest their money, we want liquidity. Giving us financial flexibility would have only pros IMO and would be a powerful recruiting tool as well.
At my current company, I pushed a lot for employees to get 10yr exercise window extension, which we now have. Now we need to push to get liquidity. I feel like it is our responsibility as employees to keep things moving for a fairer future.
We help adding value to the company, I think it will be fair to be able to sell our options even if the company is still private.
There are also companies like Equity Zen [1] that help giving employees liquidity. I wonder if that is a good alternative too?
Basically if we can unlock the value of options before an exit, options stop being lottery tickets and everyone is happy.