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Comment by duderific | Hacker News Reader

But isn't it likely that their strike price is much, much lower than the current price? If so, it's probably not that bad if the stock is down even 20% when they are able to sell. Obviously it's better if the stock price is higher, but it's not like they're going to be selling at a loss.

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Eh... Uber gave me a job offer in October 2019 claiming an internal valuation of $120B. I found it to be completely unjustified and passed on the job, but I'm certain many others bought it hook, line, and sinker.

There were some really incredulous claims around the TAM of Uber Eats (and other efforts) that were proven outrageous in the S-1 filing.

I don't think they can just do that with ISOs? Pretty sure the valuation has to be audited iirc

The 409A valuation was $70B or whatever, but they were selling the equity as though it was already worth 70% more than the paper value. (Hence the distinction between their "internal valuation" and the 409A). It was super sketchy. Basically trying to argue that the offer they were giving me was already worth a ton more than it was.

I think (hope) you mean October 2018, and aren't time traveling.

Nope. It was October 2019! The paper valuation was whatever their last raise was (~$70B or whatever), but they were sandbagging on the equity and framing it as being worth far more than it was on paper.

(October 2019 hasn't happened yet)

Ha! I read that three times and it didn't click. October 2018 is correct. Thank you for the clarification.

Probably not for anyone who joined around 2016 or later:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19880249

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