The 185 day thing is fine. It's common. The company has likely made a legal commitment to not have any employees (past or present) sell for that time period.
Look in the company's s-1, it will be there.
Look in the company's s-1, it will be there.
Number of vested RSUs * the estimated fair market value of the stock at the settlement date * the appliable highest marginal federal, state, local income tax rate and employment tax rate.
Even if no one pump up the stock price, the amount of cash needed in such a short notice, is unbearable, which will make most ex-employees to give up their shares.
How are the RSUs managed? Are they in a brokerage account? You may well be able to borrow from the broker.
You don’t own shares. You own a right to future shares. Borrow against that. (If you want to roll your own loan, sell a deliverable forward. Again, not legal advice!)
This is the lock-up agreement. It’s negotiated between the company and its underwriters and is orthogonal to the RSUs.
It covers them as equity holders, or people with the right to equity. I’ve negotiated lock-up agreements. Nobody is thinking about RSU holders. Hence how OP winds up in this mess.
OP’s problem stems from a draconian form of RSU. It doesn’t automatically vest on a liquidity event. It has the company collecting taxes. And it has a forfeiture clause.
(And pedantically, a 185-day lock-up is not common.)