Agree. Startups are small companies. Firing someone on Day 364 to dodge equity vesting is going to be noticed: he'll send emails or place calls to former employ

Agree. Startups are small companies. Firing someone on Day 364 to dodge equity vesting is going to be noticed: he'll send emails or place calls to former employees. Even if every other employee agrees that he needs to be fired, no one is going to have good thoughts about it if he's scumbagged. The way you handle that, if it's day 330 or so, is to negotiate a fair severance and buy out the equity on a pro-rated basis. "I don't have to give you anything, but you've worked nine-tenths of the year and your equity stake would be worth about $50,000 at the current valuation. Here's $45,000 not to make waves."