Your choices for financing employee stock options can differ depending on your circumstances, but one involves taking out financing to fund your exercise in exchange for a percentage of your equity if a liquidity event occurs. Another option is applying for a loan collateralized by the shares resulting from your options exercise (such as a Forge Options Exercise Bridge Loan), which can be used to fund your exercise, and then you would in turn sell your resulting shares for cash (fees, and in some cases interest, apply).