beninato

Based upon the comments, I added some additions to the end of the post. Thanks for raising those issues!

I think what Sam Altman suggested was give more stock but have it backloaded on the vesting.

Got it thanks. There are all sorts of nonstandard things that happen after acquisitions. Too hard to capture those here.

I've never seen a 2 year cliff. Can you say what company?

Great points!

Not sure what you mean about class of stock. Almost all employee options are common stock. Good point about repurchase rights. I should probably add a section on that. On the 90 day issue, usually those ISOs are converted to NQSOs after 90 days.

You don't want to work for someone like that. If they won't tell you that, what else are they hiding?

The reason I brought this up is that there are some founders who believe if you only stick around a year or two, you aren't loyal so you shouldn't get any stock. Some companies have repurchase rights. I was trying to suggest a way for employees who leave after a year or two to keep what they've vested and appease those founders who take a hard line about buy backs. I think this norm will be difficult to change although Sam Altman also discussed it in a post in recent years.

Thanks pviswana, I really appreciate it! Tell your friends please.

CS, thanks, you can ask your questions any time!

Feverish, I think it will depend upon the callers and email questions. Some specific "I'm having this issue with my co-founder or investor" and some general "how do I start a company." All are welcome! Be sure to tune in Thursday!

This Thursday, I'm launching FounderLine, a LIVE webcast devoted to helping startup founders succeed. Every week I'll have a guest entrepreneur or investor join me to answer startup-related questions that come in via phone, email, tweet, etc. The show will be live every Thursday from 5-6pm Pacific Time starting this week.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could share this post and spread the word to any startup-minded people out there. More information online at founderline.com. Thanks so much!