What reason did they provide for not answering your questions? Which communication avenues did you explore before deciding to leave? Did you try to negotiate with them?
Did you leave any options on the table, or did you exercise your options?
Reasoning presented was basically handwaving about "people wanted different compensation (read: divide and conquer)"/"we don't have to tell you this". I pointed out that, under my reading of the applicable law, I could exercise one of my vested shares and then check the books for myself--they didn't like that one bit. CEO got flustered when I brought the whole thing up--I'm sure they could've dealt with things more reasonably, but being on the spot they fumbled and erred on the side of "let's say as little as possible until we understand what we're doing".
By contrast, I asked a friend of mine what his company cap table looked like and he showed me the whole spreadsheet--a company with more investors, more revenue, more customers, and more traction than the one I was working for at the time. So, I couldn't by the "well we can't show you this" argument, because it was obvious bullshit.
The main takeaway is that one of their senior folks (me) said "Hey, you're paying us below market wages and are refusing to make up for that with competitive equity: why?" and they failed to provide a satisfactory explanation. If you choose to be secretive about that sort of thing, more power to you--but you can't be surprised that you'll be seen as untrustworthy, dishonest, and sheisty by people that ask the questions. If an intern wants the cap table, then I can understand not spending the cycles--but people who are building your teams, building your product, and doing the work your C-level should be doing (grump grump) actually do need that information to make good decisions.
As for your last question, upon my departure my options were bought back for a reasonable amount. You have to watch out for who pays taxes in such cases, but that wasn't an issue. I'm pretty sure they did this so they wouldn't have options outstanding to people that weren't working there anymore, because reasons. It's pretty silly if you ask me. There are reasons for that sort of thing, but those reasons didn't seem to apply.
What reason did they provide for not answering your questions? Which communication avenues did you explore before deciding to leave? Did you try to negotiate with them?
Did you leave any options on the table, or did you exercise your options?