91–100 of 190 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dont understand this. if they're worthless & you can't sell, why do you pay tax as if the stock is worth $90? Edit: Can someone point me to IRS docs? or blog explaining?
Because they're not worthless, they're just not liquid.
Yet another reason why taking startup stock sucks. Oh? You managed to actually get stock in a startup that seems to be worth something? And you didn't get diluted to a pittance? And the board / founders didn't try to fire you or ask you to give stock back to the pool? Lucky you, you're one of the 1% of the 1%. Now stay there until the company sells or goes public. Wait -- they got bought? Congratulations, you just wo…
I would never accept options from any startup. I will only accept shares if I know and trust the founder(s) or if there is a way to cash out early.
The last startup I worked for full time for 2 years added a clause to my contract which allows me to sell my shares as part of each capital raise that they do.
Over the past few years since I left, I've had two opportunities to cash out. The last one looked pretty decent but I trust the founders so I decided to hold. It's nice to have the choice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish one could just give a fraction of your stock equal to your marginal tax rate to the IRS, perhaps plus a small fee.
The IRS wants to be paid in cash, not illiquid stock.
Reminds me of California's debt crisis and "Hey! How dare you turn down state IOUs as payment? These are every bit as good as cash. ... Wait, you want to pay your state tax bill with state IOUs? Get that crap away from us!"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Large investors bought stock. Small investors (employees) bought stock. Price went up. Price went down. The former could get cash for their shares, the latter could not. Price kept going down. You don’t need to be an M&A lawyer to see why that’s problematic.
I agree with you that it's not fair that the employees got screwed, but they got screwed because Softbank and Uber decided not to make the offer open to the employees that didn't have at least 10,000 shares. It has absolutely nothing to do with US securities law (or any other US laws), as the current laws don't prevent acquirers from buying stock from unaccredited investors.
Nobody said it did. The top of the thread specifically calls out Uber, not securities laws, for being shitty.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh. Not in the US, but I get 7 years, which is pretty normal around here.
Where are you?
Yet another reason why taking startup stock sucks. Oh? You managed to actually get stock in a startup that seems to be worth something? And you didn't get diluted to a pittance? And the board / founders didn't try to fire you or ask you to give stock back to the pool? Lucky you, you're one of the 1% of the 1%. Now stay there until the company sells or goes public. Wait -- they got bought? Congratulations, you just wo…
If the company wants to "align incentives" with employees, then they should offer some kind of revenue/profit sharing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The IRS wants to be paid in cash, not illiquid stock.
Right, and they also want to tax income , not accumulation of untradeable shares. They seem to want to treat it as income for purposes of determining tax liability, but not income for purposes of satisfying the very same tax liability. That's like trying to have your cake and eat it too. Reminds me of California's debt crisis and "Hey! How dare you turn down state IOUs as payment? These are every bit as good as cash.…
Yet another reason why taking startup stock sucks. Oh? You managed to actually get stock in a startup that seems to be worth something? And you didn't get diluted to a pittance? And the board / founders didn't try to fire you or ask you to give stock back to the pool? Lucky you, you're one of the 1% of the 1%. Now stay there until the company sells or goes public. Wait -- they got bought? Congratulations, you just wo…
I'd argue that working at crappy companies is the problem and stock comp pain is just one symptom -- I find various forms of crappiness tend to correlate. At places with solid cultural values (Pinterest, Dropbox, Asana, Coinbase to name drop a few), employees are treating reasonably fairly on all dimensions. There's just a few ground rules: 1. Is the company giving options? They better have a 7 year exercise window (…
Yet another reason why taking startup stock sucks. Oh? You managed to actually get stock in a startup that seems to be worth something? And you didn't get diluted to a pittance? And the board / founders didn't try to fire you or ask you to give stock back to the pool? Lucky you, you're one of the 1% of the 1%. Now stay there until the company sells or goes public. Wait -- they got bought? Congratulations, you just wo…
I'd argue that working at crappy companies is the problem and stock comp pain is just one symptom -- I find various forms of crappiness tend to correlate. At places with solid cultural values (Pinterest, Dropbox, Asana, Coinbase to name drop a few), employees are treating reasonably fairly on all dimensions. There's just a few ground rules: 1. Is the company giving options? They better have a 7 year exercise window (…