I think Samuel’s second paragraph is a more intuitive albeit less precise explanation of meta-options for people with less of a finance background:
And another minor point, private companies don’t trade in real-time, VCs can’t as easily move around their money and consequently need higher returns to enter. Cause they don’t even know how many years their money is stuck. Plus they may sometimes play this game where they look at who is the next set of VCs who will help them exit, when deciding to invest. You, however, can move around—if there is a major issue, the startup could dissolve or you could quit. If the startup goes for too long without any progress you can quit. So you get back your time, the VC does not get back their money. (Yeah there is vesting for you too, but it’s often worse for the VC.)
I think Samuel’s second paragraph is a more intuitive albeit less precise explanation of meta-options for people with less of a finance background: