"The real windfall was the friends and memories we made along the way"
Yes and no. They wouldn't have gotten any of the $25m but they would have negotiated a comp package from Bird well above what they'd have gotten for being hired.
Sux for their employees, though.
Well, if both those numbers are right, they should be entitled to a share of the -$22M value they created. So I hope for them they walked away with nothing from the sale!
Why would you want them to walk away with nothing?
Because GP is suggesting that they created -$22M of value. So walking away with 0 means that they're collecting much more value than they created.
Likely not - venture capital investments have at least 1x liquidation preferences. The founders likely got nothing.