Yeah, but in an early company it shouldn&#x27;t matter as much -- these guys are pre-409A so you could easily argue $500k corp valuation and thus the guy with 1% of the company has $5k of options to exercise.  And in a later company you probably don&#x27;t get 1%.  It&#x27;s probably in the $1k-50k to exercise options in most companies.<p>A loan which is somehow forgivable for the stock seems like it could solve this; if the stock is worthless, return it instead of the loan.  (I thought you can do that?  But I guess you can&#x27;t?)