No, they kept on postponing it for a year

Customer success

@Takeiteasy buddy, without a grant letter.. you didn’t own any ESOP & they didn’t give you any ESOP😅

Software Developer

You should have checked witht the management. the moment one year was completed and not after resigning. 😅

I did check, but they kept postponing it, I had even postponed my resignation because of this

Technical lead

First vesting is after 1 yr of allotment generally

Software Engineer

Hi, had completed 1.2years at a startup, and have recently resigned and completed my notice period. In my employment letter, there is a 2Lakh esop bonus to be given post one year of employment. Hav...

Hi, had completed 1.2years at a startup, and have recently resigned and completed my notice period. In my employment letter, there is a 2Lakh esop bonus to be given post one year of employment. Haven't received the same yet and on constant follow ups, have been ignored.

Wanted to check what could be the further course of action I can take to get this redeemed.

Esops - Not received

Esops - Not received- Grapevine

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

In my offer letter Esop is not mentioned of worth 20 lacs. Should I ask to revise offer letter ?. How common in Startups it is , have you encountered this situation?. Please suggest.

Is Esop mentioned on Offer Letter?

Product Manager

Hi folks, 

I'm Kashish, the CEO of EquityList and Founder of Cloud Capital which I run as a solo GP.
A little bit about what we do: 

EquityList is a full-stack equity management platform by AngelList India. Companies across India, US and Singapore use EquityList to manage their cap table, stock options (ESOP/SAR), shareholders, and related compliances. Managing equity for 10k+ stakeholders, 250+ companies and ~$1B in stock options.

Cloud Capital has deployed $8M+ in 55+ startups such as Airmeet, Rupifi, Orange Health, DevRev, ZET (OneCode) and others. I've also angel invested in startups such as OSlash, Atlys, Chronicle, Even Healthcare and others.

Excited to do this AMA, and look forward to answering any of your questions about ESOPs, cap table management, investing, entrepreneurship, and more!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashisharma

Live AMA: Hey everyone, I'm Kashish, CEO of EquityList. Ask me anything!

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Hi everyone, I joined a startup back in May which started in May itself. I wrote the first line of code and it has been the backend work since then and have hired a few interns along the way. 

I took some pay cut to join this startup and i didn't receive any share/ESOPs as well in my offer letter. but whenever i talk to my friends who have worked or are working in these types of companies, ask me to ask for the ESOPs/equity from my founder. 

I did talk about  equity/ESOPs before accepting my offer letter but that time, they said, you will be issued ESOPs later on when we raise some funding. We will make some ESOPs plan when we raise funding. 

I know that our company has only raised friends and family round of amount near to 1cr. 

Now I need advice on.. should i bring up this conversation again with the company's founder ? 
And how much percentage of equity should I be asking..? 

 given that I am giving my 101% daily and leading the backend team.. although i have industry experience of only 3 years but have good academic achievements and has completed graduation in computer science in tier-1 college.

How to ask for ESOPs when you are a founding engineer

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

Work as the only SPM at a seed startup in SaaS. 
Salary is 45 lpa and 12 lakhs of ESOP over 4 years . 

Only PM reporting to the CEO and we have doubled revenue in the last 12 months I have been here and contributing . 

I think I got low balled on the ESOP , appraisal discussions are around the corner and I would like to increase the ESOP 

What is the an average number ? 
Have seen the product folks report and 30lps seems to be the right number .
Looking for other similar folks to advise

ESOP and Salary advise

Hi, I have an ESOPs related question. Appreciate any inputs. 

Consider a Series B startup providing an employee with 5000 shares. After 2 years, 2000 shares are vested and exercised by the employee. The stocks were never liquidated because the company didn't conduct buyback nor went IPO. 

Now, assume the company lays off that employee after 2 years,

- Can he still hold the vested and exercised 2000 shares? 
- If yes, then can he sell those stocks during future buyback even if he isn't an employee?
- Will the company provide accelerated vesting for the remaining 3000 shares during layoff? (not mentioned on offer letter)

Question on ESOPs

Analyst

I am being offered 30% of CTC component as ESOPs (1 crore liquid pay + 30 lakh ESOPs). It's a Series B consumer tech brand. 

Are ESOPs still a thing? What should I do?

ESOPs

Product Marketing Manager

I have recently received an offer from a startup and my offer letter says that I will receive esops (post round). 

What does post round here mean?

Have little doubt about ESOPs mentioned in my offer letter

Where did you work and how much money did you make?

Asking as it looks like a lot of promise of ESOPs and wealth creation has failed employees in this bloodbath slow growth, layoffs, and job changes.

"ESOPs made me rich af"

UX/UI designer

Hello All,

I interviewed with a startup recently and some of their policies around esops was something I encountered for the first time in my career, so wanted the expert advice of the community on next steps.

Surprise one: ESOPs will be allocated post probation period of 3 months and vesting starts from there and not the date of joining, I was surprised on this but upon discussion with the company POC I was given a reason of the legal fees involved, which sounds fair but the vesting schedule is it employee favourable?

Surprise two: They shared an offer letter with only the fixed component and said ESOPs will be evaluated post completion of probation period basis performance. Upon further discussing in this I was informed that this is a standard format their VC(sequoia, a16z and elevation) have approved. Is this true because I asked around few of my friends and all of them said esops are an integral part of the startup compensation and all of my and their offer letters historically had esops mentioned along with their value. 

Wrt to point 2 an I asking too much or some practice has changed in the industary which I’m unaware about. Also esop value post probation evaluation, is it employee friendly as the employee is in non negotiable position, isn’t it ?

Should esops component  be mentioned in offer letter?

I have joined a startup and have some vested esops available with me. My question is when I leave the company, how will I be able to exercise these options since I can access the esop portal using my offical email id only. Sorry if it's a noob question - but I am clueless about this.

ESOP clarification

How many of you had ESOP related promises by founders broken by them ? Could any of you appeal to their better senses and get any money or were you hung out to dry completely ??

ESOP related problems

Support specialist

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

It's like going back to COVID days. We got email that due to current situation there will not be any increment this year. What about your company? How is the situation?

No increment this year in company

Project manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

ESOPs is offered by an early age startup. What are the things I does be aware about? or ask the founders to clarify with me.

Human resources

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

I have left company i own around equivalent to approx 6k equity shares. Have not excecised yet. 

Any possibility to convert esops to cash

Require some honest understanding regards to esops

Truths about ESOP 101 

After working in multiple fast growth startup’s and having been part of multiple buybacks as well as being in the startup ecosystem for a decade I want to put to bear my pov about creating wealth through ESOP. 

Like any other randomised event, ESOP also follows Pareto principle which means a very small number of people within the company ever make sizable wealth that they elevate to the top 0.1% of the country. 

The Pareto also applies with companies; significantly small minority of companies in India have employee friendly policies which enables an employee to create wealth. 

Most startup’s have dark patterns within their esop policy which either locks you in for insufferable durations or forces you to pay exorbitant taxes to gain the right to exercise your esops when you are leaving the company. 

Survivorship bias plays a huge role in enabling the narrative that esop is a great wealth generating tool leading to rude awakening for an employee after they join a company. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t make wealth, it just means don’t get carried away by narratives and take preventable errors in your career. 

Always talk to multiple people in startup’s and ask relevant questions to understand esop policies better. 

Like everything else optimising only for esop for wealth creation will mostly not result in it.

Esops - Not received

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