Assuming you’re in the US and it’s a fairly early stage company (one or two funding rounds), I’d look at: * Early exercise: Allowing you to exercise your optio

Assuming you’re in the US and it’s a fairly early stage company (one or two funding rounds), I’d look at: * Early exercise: Allowing you to exercise your options immediately while the strike price == grant price (tax benefits and lower cash outlay) then vest the shares over time. * Exercise window: Many companies only give you 90-days to use or lose your options if you leave down the road. Employee-friendly startups were giving 10-year windows for a while but these might have fallen out of vogue now. * Restrictions on secondary sales and transfers: Ideally, they’ll have a short right of first refusal period but will allow secondary market sales before a liquidity event. * QSBS: Maybe worth looking at whether the company will qualify at its current size but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. A nice perk if it works out. - Whatever % you end up at, assume some additional dilution in future funding rounds. The 50% to 75% mentioned below seems aggressive but it all depends on the strength of the company. Also make sure they don’t have some abnormal vesting schedule. Four year vest with a one-year cliff is still the most common. Others have linked good resources and I’ll add the Holloway guide. https://www.holloway.com/g/equity-compensation https://www.holloway.com/g/equity-compensation