Sunrise Counsel - Current Issues and Trends in Employee Equity Compensation

Equity compensation is fundamental to startups’ abilities to recruit and retain top talent in today’s market. As companies and valuations grow, out-of-reach option strike prices can impede employees’ abilities to exercise vested stock options, absent a liquidity event. Employee candidates may also not fully appreciate the differences in equity value between a late-stage private company and public companies. In this program, we will explore:

• How have Silicon Valley unicorns and other late-stage private companies addressed this problem in light of longer horizons to liquidity events?
• Are companies extending post-termination exercise periods of stock options or providing employees loans to exercise vested options?
• Are others using private company RSUs or implementing stock splits?
• How often are tender offers or secondary sales done in connection with financing rounds? And what are the tax, legal and other business consequences and considerations?

Hear from a panel of GCs, including Michael Wu of Carta and leading executive compensation and employee benefits expert, Shawn Lampron, on current issues and trends in employee equity compensation.

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