Commonly Considered Option Program Enhancements: Part IV – Employee Loans To Purchase Shares
7.10.2023Kimberly Wethly, Ciara Baker
Explore the intricacies of employee loans for purchasing company in the final part of our series on enhancing programs.
Commonly Considered Option Program Enhancements: Part III – Granting Options with Extended Post-Termination Exercise Periods
7.5.2023Ciara Baker, Kimberly Wethly
In the third installment, this article delves into the complexities of extending the post-termination exercise period for , examining tax implications, administrative challenges, share recycling issues, impact on efforts, considerations for a release of claims and questions of fairness.
Commonly Considered Option Program Enhancements: Part II – Early Exercisable Stock Options
6.20.2023Ciara Baker, Kimberly Wethly
In this second installment, we begin our exploration of program “enhancements” by considering early exercisable .
Commonly Considered Option Program Enhancements: Part I – Introduction and Stock Option Basics
6.5.2023Ciara Baker, Kimberly Wethly
In this blog post, we delve into the topic of equity incentive program improvements being explored by private companies, and we also provide an explanation of and their tax implications.
Two years here. Three years there. Another five somewhere else. Frequent job-hopping used to be a red flag, suggesting to prospective employers that a candidate was unfocused and disloyal. That stigma seems to be gone. Changing jobs might be the best way to score a significant salary bump and move up the career ladder.
There’s no legal definition for “founder,” but it is one of the most important roles in a . Designating someone a founder means a lot for the long-term future of the company and for that individual; it is the founders who define and shape the vision for the company.
As the founder of a , you’d love to reward your employees with hefty holiday bonuses, but your business is bootstrapped and cash is, undoubtedly, in somewhat short supply. So you might be looking for holiday gifts that telegraph yet don’t break the bank. Here’s the solution that many founders are coming up with: They are giving employees the gift of extra time to exercise their vested after they leave. Before you join the crowd, let me say this: It’s a terrible idea on every level.
The Value of Employee Options
10.12.2015
One question almost all founders will run into—whether at the time of incorporation, when hiring their first employee, or just before raising the first round of financing—is how to structure the pool and create incentives for employee recruitment and . often find themselves in a fierce battle for talent, pitted against bigger, cash-flush companies that can higher salaries than can afford to pay. This is why equity incentives—in the form of —are so popular from a recruitment perspective.
In our initial meetings with entrepreneurs, we frequently spend a significant amount of time advising on founder vesting. Those discussions can be much shorter. Not because we don’t want to spend the time with you, but because in most the cases, the best thing to do is what’s standard. And as a founder, your time is better spent building your company.
You've taken the plunge and decided to launch your and incorporate a new company. As founding team, you've settled on how to divide the company's initial equity among the founder group. All that's left is to call your lawyers and tell them how many shares to issue, right? Not so fast. In a company with more than one founder, issuing founder without subjecting those shares to vesting is never a good idea.
