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Ask HN: Has anyone sold their employee stock on the secondary market?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone sold their employee stock on the secondary market?

#51
post #6

I'm curious about this as well. Does your employer know that you sold or not?

Usually, they'll have to, since such stock is usually conditioned on you granting the employer the Right of First Refusal (i.e. the chance to beat any offer from a buyer you find).

ROFR devalues your ownership interest significantly in most deals.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone sold their employee stock on the secondary market?

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? If you can find a buyer for a certain amount, you can sell for that amount. The company can just opt to be the buyer.

Check your stock agreement. I worked somewhere it didn't just grant first right of refusal, but the company had to _approve any sale_. In practice, they approved almost no sales, so this was a ban on selling shares before IPO.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone sold their employee stock on the secondary market?

#53
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that something the exemployee would be able to sue over? Like, it's clearly fraudulently done to steal their equity.

Dilution is extremely common and a lot of this funding stuff comes down to businesses strategy. My example was extreme, but there is tons of gray area for this kinda thing

Ah, if you were exaggerating the numbers to explain the concept, I can see how a more subtle screwing would be nonactionable. I thought you were saying they were that blatant

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone sold their employee stock on the secondary market?

#54
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dilution is extremely common and a lot of this funding stuff comes down to businesses strategy. My example was extreme, but there is tons of gray area for this kinda thing

Ah, if you were exaggerating the numbers to explain the concept, I can see how a more subtle screwing would be nonactionable. I thought you were saying they were that blatant

I think it certainly can be that significant or more. Someone else mentioned Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin. At IPO, Zuckerbergs's equity was down to 28% and Eduardo had been diluted down to 2%.

That is a co-founder of a high profile unicorn with continuous growth. Now imagine what can happen to employee # 1000 at a shady middle cap startup struggling to get to market.

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