This article is really weird, because the person in Dogpatch says they were granted OPTIONS not stock. So it's possible that this doesn't even touch on liquidation preferences and the strike price was just higher than the sale price.
But if we assume that this was RSUs, or that the strike price was just a fraction of the sale price, I still think the common advice of "consider start-up equity to be worthless" is a little overzealous. Unless the founders accepted some outrageous terms it's probably the case that your options are worth a lot in a company that's doing well. If the company stops growing or takes a down round that's when you should start thinking of your shares as useless.
But if we assume that this was RSUs, or that the strike price was just a fraction of the sale price, I still think the common advice of "consider start-up equity to be worthless" is a little overzealous. Unless the founders accepted some outrageous terms it's probably the case that your options are worth a lot in a company that's doing well. If the company stops growing or takes a down round that's when you should start thinking of your shares as useless.