First of all, the story doesn't mention anything about the size of the deal.
Second of all, the company is selling after ~2 years. The average employee has probably been there for less than 1 year. Excluding the common stock of the founders (since they are the ones who made the decision to sell), employee common stock grants and common stock options are all about ensuring employees get a share of blockbuster company results, like IPOs or 8/9 figure acquisitions.
In the case of smaller acquisitions (of which this might have been or might not have been), stock options are probably not worth very much because the company hasn't grown that much. Nobody is at fault, nobody got screwed, its just how stock works. That is why employees are paid salaries. This is why employees often get generous retention offers from the acquiring company. Nobody is being "wiped out" because that assumes there was inherent value to begin with, which there isn't.
I'm not saying anyone got screwed, I'm saying that common stock probably is worth $0 (for similar reasons: quick exit, not much time to really build value, etc). "Generous retention" can vary drastically.
The reason I mention it is because it's easy to get sucked into the trap of "hey they exited for $30m, and the person who gave up $40k/year salary for 2% ownership just got a check for $600k!" when that simply isn't realistic. Unless everything goes exactly right, common stock isn't really worth the risk. I think it's an important distinction to make.
Again, not saying anyone got "screwed", just that even in this case, an 8-figure exit could very well mean no common stock holders got a dime. I'm very curious about the terms of the Cruise deal as well -- a 10 figure exit (!), but I'm interested to find out how much the common stock there was actually worth.
YC validates that a company might be worth a lot one day. Employees factor this into their decisions both to join a company and in salary negotiation. Everyone knows this and anything less then full acknowledgement of the fact is complete chickenshit.
To then turn around on a YC forum and say "It is completely fair that employees come out of a $MM acquisition with the skin on their backs" is equally chickenshit.
Until startups stop banking on the marketing of equity to employees I'm always going to advocate for said employees.
Second of all, the company is selling after ~2 years. The average employee has probably been there for less than 1 year. Excluding the common stock of the founders (since they are the ones who made the decision to sell), employee common stock grants and common stock options are all about ensuring employees get a share of blockbuster company results, like IPOs or 8/9 figure acquisitions.
In the case of smaller acquisitions (of which this might have been or might not have been), stock options are probably not worth very much because the company hasn't grown that much. Nobody is at fault, nobody got screwed, its just how stock works. That is why employees are paid salaries. This is why employees often get generous retention offers from the acquiring company. Nobody is being "wiped out" because that assumes there was inherent value to begin with, which there isn't.