4 ms·

If I decide to leave a company in which I have partially vested stock options, would it be okay to ask my employer (or anyone else in my company) if they would

If I decide to leave a company in which I have partially vested stock options, would it be okay to ask my employer (or anyone else in my company) if they would be interested in buying the options off of me at the current valuation (EG, last amount of money raised)? Is something like this common, or would I get laughed out of the room? Similarly, how liquid are markets like Second Market in terms of liquidating option value at a startup that's raised multiple rounds of funding but has yet to exit or IPO? Are there angels (or networks of angels) that buy small amounts of pre-exit equity?

balls187 13y ago
If you don't exercise your vested options, they will automatically expire after a certain date. The company doesn't really have any incentive to purchase your options from you, however they will likely have a clause that gives the company first right of refusal--that is, if you plan on selling any shares prior to a liquidity event, you have to first offer them to the company for FMV. As to pre-IPO, post fund raise, your stock is typically Restricted stock units, which have clauses that prevent you from selling stock. It's possible, with board approval to issue a special class of common stock, that can be sold to outside investors. This is usually done to allow long-term founders to get some liquidity outside a liquidity event. This typically doesn't happen for most employee's though. In an IPO scenario, all outstanding shares convert to a single class of stock, which can be freely sold (after a lock-up period).
prostoalex 13y ago
There's not really a whole lot of incentive for a company to buy your shares, since they can always print more if needed. Liquidity highly depends on the company. SecondMarket, SharesPost and MicroVentures have online portals for buying+selling, but they also have a mailing list with people potentially interested in a secondary market transaction, so worthwhile exploring that option.

balls187 13y ago

If you don't exercise your vested options, they will automatically expire after a certain date. The company doesn't really have any incentive to purchase your options from you, however they will likely have a clause that gives the company first right of refusal--that is, if you plan on selling any shares prior to a liquidity event, you have to first offer them to the company for FMV. As to pre-IPO, post fund raise, your stock is typically Restricted stock units, which have clauses that prevent you from selling stock. It's possible, with board approval to issue a special class of common stock, that can be sold to outside investors. This is usually done to allow long-term founders to get some liquidity outside a liquidity event. This typically doesn't happen for most employee's though. In an IPO scenario, all outstanding shares convert to a single class of stock, which can be freely sold (after a lock-up period).

prostoalex 13y ago

There's not really a whole lot of incentive for a company to buy your shares, since they can always print more if needed. Liquidity highly depends on the company. SecondMarket, SharesPost and MicroVentures have online portals for buying+selling, but they also have a mailing list with people potentially interested in a secondary market transaction, so worthwhile exploring that option.