Comment by randerson

My experience was similar, right down to the $10,000 worth of options. Eventually the company went public and those options would have been worth $5M if I'd had the foresight (and cash) to exercise them (which I didn't). The co-founders did not have exercise costs or AMT of course. It is an unfair system indeed. I'd encourage those seeking to be early engineers to go work at a FAANG for a few years before joining a startup so that you have the cash reserves to take the risk.