[irjustin]

There's a lot of speculation about how different rounds will get paid out.

Unless someone has insider information and is willing to post, we have absolutely no idea who was made whole, who lost and/or who gained.

At the size of Brex, anything is possible and it depends on how much leverage they had at each priced round. Guaranteed payout, equal, founders multiplier, lead multipier. All possible.

Additionally, what people don't realize is the headline number can get severely inflated IF debt is included in the purchase price. If say their book was 4.3B in debt then the equity part is ~800m and all of a sudden everyone's underwater.

We simply don't know the details.

[HWR_14]

What is a founder/lead multiplier?

[seattle_spring]

An opaque method of ensuring investors get a huge payout at the expense of employees with ISOs that convert to common stock. Many startups refuse to share this multiplier with candidates, and will instead insist their equity grant is "competitive with the market" and "very generous."

I wouldn't be surprised if, despite the large-sounding acquisition sum of ~5b, many employees are getting their equity zero'd out and replaced with a back-loaded 4 year grant, with vesting starting today and no credit for time already worked.

[irjustin]

It's a different form of guaranteed payout where their value is a multiple on the next round or buyout event.

Both guaranteed payout and multiplier are forms lowering your specific allocation of the evaluation so you get a larger payout vs the rest of that group or future groups.