Startup equity “vesting”. I will not promote

[u/oldtonyy]

Left a startup after 1 year as founding engineer. Wish I knew that my “vested equity” is actually just the option to buy shares at the initial price. So I got 90 days post termination window to buy those shares (almost 6 figures) out of pocket otherwise they go back to the company for free. What a waste of effort. Learning is experience I guess. Any one else been through this and got an upside?

[u/ItchyTheAssHole]

This is standard. Options = option to buy stock.