Process to exercise the vested ESOPs.

Hi Guys, what is the “Exercise event” for the ESOPs allotted by Indian startup’s? Note: Exercise event means when the vested ESOPs can be allotted. I have come across a couple startup’s which have a very sketchy Exercise event I.e 4 years after vesting of “all the allotted ESOPs” So I’m trying to figure out how other startup’s are doing it in BLR/Metro cities in India.

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.

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.

Please share the knowledge you've about these two!

I'm currently a front end dev in an early stage startup, been more than 1.5 years here, joined as a UI dev took up frontend. I've just got ESOPs and wanted to know what do people think. Not thinking of switching right now cuz recession, but does ESOP turn to money often. It'll get vested until 2027 btw.

I am at a VC backed early stage startup. Have been offered Esops.l but have no clue on this. Can somebody explain to me how can I make money from ESOP by answering these- 1) Do I have to buy them post vesting period? If yes, what amount do I need to pay? Also will there be text on this purchase itself? 2)) When the company buys back from me assuming my vesting was over and I could hold them on, what's the amount I will get? I am assuming it's (no of options * current share price) - (no of options * strike price issued to me). Is that correct? If yes, how is the current share price calculated for non listed company? 3) Now when the company buys these, what's the tax I have to pay? I am trying to understand if availing options and selling options are different and if both have taxes 4) What happens in IPO? Who buys from me? Where can I sell? What price do I sell at?

I work in a fintech company. Revenue and growth wise we are good, we just got acquired by a large internet platform too. Also, last year has been a tremendous learning for me as well. I like being PM but looking to move out of my current industry (lending) as I want to explore other domains and I feel like my CTC here is somewhat low (18.5 + 1.5 bonus) considering my experience (around 4.5 years). My boss said that I will get ESOPS (around 10 lacs) which I can liquidate around 50% this year. Should I wait for my appraisal to complete (will happen around April) and look to switch or should I start preparing for interviews now itself?

So i got the ESOPs in my current company and now they want me to exercise it as it is mandatory to exercise the ESOP in a certain period of time. What will happen once I exercise it?? Also i am thinking of quitting the company so what will happen to the exercised ESOP if I leave the company?? Please give any resources to understand the complete what, how and when of the ESOPs and general summary regarding it