I worked for a VC-funded technology startup that eventually went public. It was a small company and we saw the whole process from the inside. IPO, employee options, blackout periods, insider trades, misinformation, the dot-com boom, day traders, and eventually, total crash and burn. The whole cycle.
I won't bore everyone with stories but one thing I can say with conviction: these deals are always 100% structured to benefit the insiders, NOT the rank-and-file employees and NOT naive outsiders who buy the stock.