And subsequent: Philz Coffee sold to private equity firm Freeman Spogli for $145M
Without exception, every startup my friends and I have worked at that got acquired dissolved the common stock and made the options worthless.
People often take lower pay in a startup to get equity, but because it's "common" it can be zero'd out to nothing. On the premium shares matter.
JumpCrisscross•5mo ago
Get a securities lawyer, sue and then lob a bunch of state and federal complaints against any lawyers or bankers involved. Cancelling stock outside liquidation is bonkers.
orionsbelt•5mo ago
Edited to Add:
Yeah, the above seems right. This seems like standard fare. See the below FAQ from https://philzcoffee.com/stakeholderfaqs:
How many employees who invested in your company lost their money and/or stock options as a result of this transaction?
A total of 10 former employees who chose to invest in Philz Coffee by buying common stock years ago at much higher prices than the current price of the shares will unfortunately lose the value of that stock. There are no other Philz Coffee common stockholders or broader group of Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction and no current employees are Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction. Additionally, out of our approximately 1,500 current employees, 47 were granted stock options (the right to buy stock at a certain price in the future) in 2022 and earlier that are not exercisable based on the current price of the shares. Unfortunately, those options will expire per their original terms, but since the employees did not buy stock, they did not lose any money.
lumost•5mo ago
We really need to see arrangements where the ultimately small pool of employee equity is above the liquidation preference of any investors. The transparency around such preferences is quite suspect.
orionsbelt•5mo ago
This happens hundreds if not thousands of times a year at startups that sell for less than the aggregate liquidation preferences.
lumost•5mo ago
JumpCrisscross•5mo ago
You’re purchasing shares when you exercise options.
The oddity is both that these shares were sold to these employees, versus sort of occurring as a matter of course of employment, and that the company seemed to go out of its way to cancel them versus just declaring them worthless while the entity is wrapped up.
bb88•5mo ago
pydry•5mo ago
zamalek•5mo ago
bb88•5mo ago
They're solely relying upon the fact the employees with common stocks won't sue. To recoup your $100k claim against the equity might take $1M in legal fees.
JumpCrisscross•5mo ago
Not…how capital structures work.
First any debt would be paid. Then preferred-stock liquidation preferences. Then the rest gets divided up among all stockholders, including those with common. (Though not conventionally among those with unexercised options.)
What’s telling, here, is that the shares had to be cancelled. That implies they were due a payout.
JumpCrisscross•5mo ago
That press release [1] is damning:
“A total of 10 former employees who chose to invest in Philz Coffee by buying common stock years ago at much higher prices than the current price of the shares will unfortunately lose the value of that stock.”
They’ve conceded there was a “current price of the shares.” That one sentence should be the beginning and end of the claim. (They should have said the shares are worthless. They didn’t.)
[1] https://philzcoffee.com/stakeholderfaqs
SilverElfin•5mo ago