It is also true that many founders and early key hires negotiate for acceleration upon change of control. I advise our companies to be very careful about agreei

It is also true that many founders and early key hires negotiate for acceleration upon change of control. I advise our companies to be very careful about agreeing to acceleration upon change of control. I’ve seen these provisions become very painful and difficult to deal with in sale transactions in the past. The first startup I worked at had an "acceleration upon change of control" clause in the employee stock option plan. Then when we went for our Series A funding, the investors (not USV) insisted that everyone agree to drop that clause as a condition of investment (2 founders and 2 employees at the time). Their reasoning was that such a clause would make us a much less desirable acquisition target if people would be able to leave immediately after said acquisition. We all understood the reasoning and agreed to drop the clause but it was somewhat disappointing and would have been better if the clause were never there in the first place.