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I early exercised my CloudFlare stock as soon as I got it. As a result, I had 0 taxable gain at that point, and if the company eventually exits, my gains will
by rdl 11y ago
I early exercised my CloudFlare stock as soon as I got it. As a result, I had 0 taxable gain at that point, and if the company eventually exits, my gains will be long term capital gains, AND they will be gains in whatever state I'm resident in at the time (exceedingly unlikely to be California -- Washington, for instance, has 0% income tax, no tax on capital gains, and no AMT, plus (outside Seattle) I can afford to buy a house.)
- audi100quattro 11y agoI wonder how many Uber employees asked for early exercise and got it in their offer letters. It is definitely not standard practice AFAIK.
- rdl 11y agoAt some companies it is in the standard offer letter. Unless you are coming in very senior or very early (or both, really) you are unlikely to get a modified option grant, other than just number of shares negotiations. IMO the gold standard here is to issue actual founder shares as long as possible (up to and possibly past series a) and then to do options with early exercise and extended validity, and of course complete transparency on all the numbers.
- audi100quattro 11y agoI also like this: http://blog.detour.com/introducing-progressive-equity/ http://blog.detour.com/introducing-progressive-equity/ Early exercise for the vast majority then is something you have to know to ask for in addition to number of shares.