Equity | A View from the Valley

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley

Category Archives: Equity

Filing reminder: Incentive Stock Options and Employee Stock Purchase Plans—IRS Information Statements and Information Returns under Section 6039

This post is a reminder of certain year-end reporting requirements imposed under Section 6039 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, with respect to incentive stock option exercises and transfers of stock acquired under employee stock purchase plans occurring during 2011. For incentive stock option exercises and transfers of stock acquired under employee…

Advice on Advisor Option Grants

posted Mar 6 in Equity, People issues

I recently had a detailed discussion with a client about common terms for option grants for advisors. Advisors are typically business or technical people that lend their time and expertise to a company in exchange for equity. This client asked me for the most typical terms for options, so I thought I’d share a couple…

Option Grants: Fully Diluted or Issued and Outstanding?

posted Feb 24 in Equity, People issues, Startups

I’ve recently received a similar question from a few different early stage startups so I thought I’d answer it here. It’s a fairly simple concept but one that seems to cause some confusion.The question is: “When I tell a new hire how many shares he or she is getting, should I tell them the percentage…