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Really depends on what size able means. Let's say the founders split the company 50/50. They're on a standard vesting schedule. One of them leaves after 1 year.
by hkmurakami 10y ago
Really depends on what size able means. Let's say the founders split the company 50/50. They're on a standard vesting schedule. One of them leaves after 1 year. They will have 12.5% of the company.
Do you consider this sizeable? I certainly would, and this will happen even if you have all the standard mechanisms in place!
- Bartweiss 10y agoThere's an argument I've seen that founders should be on a thoroughly nonstandard vesting schedule, for exactly this reason. Slower vesting, a longer cliff, an event-based cliff, or some combination thereof. It's a decent assumption that all successful, unpurchased startups take at least 3 years to hit it big. Given that, you could reasonably put a founder cliff at 2 years (with early vesting on buyout) as a show of faith. Of course, the other argument is that if a founder leaves with 12.5% of your company something else is terribly wrong regardless.