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Well-put. I'll only add that even with options, 3) Past employees who might have made significant contributions and created tons of value get nothing is an
by williamscales 10y ago
Well-put. I'll only add that even with options,
3) Past employees who might have made significant contributions and created tons of value get nothing
is an issue because ISO options expire at most 90 days after termination. Some companies have begun to provide terms that allow employees to exercise their options for much longer (7 years in Pinterest's case I believe), but this is far from a universally accepted practice.
- birken 10y agoYes there are a bunch of companies with extended exercise windows now [1]! I'm a huge proponent of extended exercise windows and would personally never work at a company that didn't offer that. However, even ISOs with 90 day expiry periods are way better than this. If you are presently employed at the company at the time of IPO/acquisition then you don't have any issue with the 90 day window, and if you do run into the 90 day window at least you have the choice to exercise them or not. And if early exercise is available then you could exercise options early on when the company is worth very little and then not have to worry about the 90 day expiry period later. 1: https://github.com/holman/extended-exercise-windows https://github.com/holman/extended-exercise-windows
- terravion 10y agoAlso, every plan allows for exercise of vested options. While this might not be tax advantageous you can use the options and get the stock at a sweetheart price. If you believe in the company this still seems like a good deal.