Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have cosmic ambitions for Blue Origin and SpaceX.
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SpaceX's record-breaking IPO has turned former employees into millionaires — and left alums of a rival rocket company with a serious case of FOMO.Three ex-employees of Jeff Bezos' rocket maker Blue Origin told Business Insider that the company's unusual approach to equity left them with stock options that are essentially worthless.Meanwhile, they've watched SpaceX's dizzying rise to a $2 trillion-plus valuation provide a massive windfall for early hires — from engineers to welders to cafeteria workers — who received stock options during their time at Elon Musk's company.Business Insider reviewed documents detailing Blue Origin's historic stock options program, which promised a payout only if the company went public or was sold — and, crucially, expired if those events didn't happen within 10 years.That is an unusual structure for large private tech companies, with other pre-IPO startups like SpaceX, Stripe, and OpenAI allowing current and former employees to sell their vested stock through periodic share sales.Blue Origin introduced a new options plan for current employees in April, which offers additional ways to cash out.
