Stock Option Plan
Explains source{d}'s stock option plan, including definitions, allocation formula, vesting, and acceleration rules.
What this file does
Explains source{d}'s stock option plan, including definitions, allocation formula, vesting, and acceleration rules.
When to use it
- Onboarding new employees at a startup with an option plan
- Documenting equity compensation for a company's internal wiki
- Explaining option mechanics to team members unfamiliar with equity
- Providing a reference for option allocation formulas and vesting schedules
Stock Option Plan
This is the place where you will find all the information regarding our Stock Option Plan.
What are options?
An option is a contract that gives someone the right, but not the obligation, to buy a share at a specified price (strike price) within a specific time range or at a specific event.
How do options work at source{d}?
At source{d} you receive options when you join the company as a way of making clear that you as well are an owner of this venture.<br> source{d} options can be exercised in the case of a liquidity event.<br> Depending on when you join, a strike price is defined, which will define how much you’ll need to “pay” to buy source{d} stock when you exercise your options.<br>
What is a strike price?
The strike price is the price that you will agree to pay to exercise your options in the future. We currently set the strike price by applying a 20% discount over last round’s valuation, but this will change once we redomesticate to the U.S. There you need to perform a yearly valuation of the company by an external party to set this price.<br> To be clear, whenever you’ll execute your options you won’t actually need to pay anything. On the contrary, you will receive the difference between your strike price and the share price of the liquidity event.
What is a liquidity event?
A liquidity event could be an IPO or an acquisition by another party.<br> An IPO (Initial Public Offering) means becoming a publicly traded company, listed on a stock exchange like Nasdaq. The share price to which the strike price would be compared would be that at which the company would start to trade.<br> In the case of an acquisition the share price would be determined by the amount paid for the acquisition, divided by the total number of shares + options.
How many options have been given out?(*)
| Category | Absolute | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Total Vested | 857 | 3.51% |
| Total Grantes | 1,438 | 5.89% |
| Total Outstanding | 330 | 1.35% |
| Total Options | 1,768 | 7.24% |
| Total Shares | 22,668 | 92.76% |
| Total Shares + Options | 24,436 | 100.00% |
(*)Numbers updated at 1st of May 2019
How are options allocated?
We follow a formula that we apply to all positions in order for the allocation to be fair and scalable as we grow. It looks the following way:
options as a % of 'Total Shares + Options' = (Team / Stage + Role)
To understand the # of options on your offer letter, you need to calculate the following:
# of options = ((Team / Stage + Role) / 100) * (Total Shares + Options)
Team stands for which team you'll be working in. The weights are distributed this way:
| Team | Weight |
|---|---|
| Data Science | 0.12 |
| Developer Community | 0.12 |
| Engineering | 0.1 |
| Product | 0.1 |
| Operations | 0.05 |
Stage stands for when you joined source{d}. Those who joined earlier had more risk than those who joined later:
| Stage | Weight |
|---|---|
| Seed | 2 |
| Series A | 4 |
Role represents how senior your position is. The more senior, the more responsibilities, the more options:
| Role | Weight |
|---|---|
| VP | 0.37 |
| Head | 0.27 |
| Lead | 0.17 |
| Senior | 0.07 |
| Normal | 0.02 |
| Junior | 0.00 |
Here is a table with the resulting number of options for each position on Series A stage.
| Team | Role | # Options |
|---|---|---|
| Data Science | VP | 98 |
| Data Science | Head | 73 |
| Data Science | Lead | 49 |
| Data Science | Senior | 24 |
| Data Science | Normal | 12 |
| Data Science | Junior | 7 |
| Developer Community | VP | 98 |
| Developer Community | Head | 73 |
| Developer Community | Lead | 49 |
| Developer Community | Senior | 24 |
| Developer Community | Normal | 12 |
| Developer Community | Junior | 7 |
| Engineering | VP | 96 |
| Engineering | Head | 72 |
| Engineering | Lead | 48 |
| Engineering | Senior | 23 |
| Engineering | Normal | 11 |
| Engineering | Junior | 6 |
| Product | VP | 96 |
| Product | Head | 72 |
| Product | Lead | 48 |
| Product | Senior | 23 |
| Product | Normal | 11 |
| Product | Junior | 6 |
| Operations | VP | 93 |
| Operations | Head | 69 |
| Operations | Lead | 45 |
| Operations | Senior | 20 |
| Operations | Normal | 8 |
| Operations | Junior | 3 |
Award letter
When you start working with us you will receive an award letter which grants you the options that are ruled by our Stock Option Plan. You can find a template of it here.
Stock Option Plan
Here you can find a template of our Stock Option Plan.
Vesting explained
When you join source{d} your options start vesting on the first day you start working. However if you leave source{d} or are fired within 12 months of starting, you will retain 0 options. This is called a "cliff". After 12 months of being at source{d} you will have vested 25% of your total options granted. This means, they are now yours, and no matter if you resign or are fired, they will be yours. After those 12 months, there is 3 more years of vesting on a daily basis, that means every day you gain more of your options.
Acceleration explained
If a liquidity event happens, no matter how long you've been at source{d}, could be 3 months, or 2 years, 85% of your total options are instantly vested, and the remaining 15% are vested over the course of 12 months after the company IPO's or joins the acquirer. This is to benefit everyone equally in case of a liquidity event.
What's inside
7 sections: definitions, allocation formula with 3 weight tables, award letter link, plan template link, vesting and acceleration explanations.
Change this for your project
- Replace
source{d}with your company name throughout - Replace the allocation weights in the
Team,Stage, andRoletables with your own values - Replace the Google Drive links for award letter and plan template with your own documents
- Replace the numbers in the
Total Shares + Optionstable with your current data
Where it goes
A standard operating procedure. Keep where the team or agent running the process will find it.
Worth borrowing
- Using a formula with team, stage, and role weights to allocate options fairly and scalably
- Explaining vesting cliff and acceleration in plain language for non-experts
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