No, this is a provision in the agreement that's driven by the tax code and IRS regulations. It is required if you want the option to be an incentive stock optio

No, this is a provision in the agreement that's driven by the tax code and IRS regulations. It is required if you want the option to be an incentive stock option. It's not arbitrary. You're right that you are free to to negotiate a different exercise window prior to accepting your stock grant (and a lot of more progressive companies are offering this). You just can't, under current tax law, get the sometimes beneficial ISO treatment with a longer window. There's a nice summary of the situation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9254299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9254299