equity, stock-optionsI’ve seen a million and one questions like this, but none that are close enough to my situation to be useful to me.
I worked for a startup for 1 and a half years. I was granted equity upon starting of 100k shares with a 3 year vesting period and 1 year cliff. 1/3 vested after 1 year, with monthly increments on top.
Today I handed in my resignation, so I’m wondering if those shares are still mine (I obviously feel they should be, since they represent a reward for effort already made).
The main wrinkle is this; there was never any signed contract for the equity. It was all confirmed via email, sent via the COO and acknowledged via the CEO. The CEO later responded to the same email chain when I’d asked for clarification, again confirming 100k shares.
The email simply referred to them as shares, not share options. It mentioned no buy back facility, no additional clauses, just the vesting schedule, total amount and when the vesting period began. It also didn’t mention any strike price, but given that they called them shares rather than options, I would assume there’d be no strike price anyway.
So… are these shares mine? Can I actually do anything with them? Do I need someone to sign something over to me officially (or more officially than an email chain), or am I screwed?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Typically, shares can only be given by the board of directors, not the CEO. So when you have an email from the CEO telling you about your (future) shares, it only means that the CEO will go to the board and recommend they give you those shares. Either that happened or it didn’t. If it did, there certainly is a paper trace and you’re completely fine. If it never happened, that company is mismanaged.
Unfortunately, these kinds of situations are very fact specific, so no one can answer this without looking at the precise wording of the emails.
You would have been in a much better position had you tried to resolve this while you were still an employee. At least then, the CEO would have had incentive to keep you happy. Now, he doesn’t seem to have much incentive at all so I suspect it will be challenging to resolve this.
Your best bet is to be as nice and diplomatic as possible and see if they will grant you the shares. You need a stock certificate to own the shares and the company will have to do that paperwork.
If they don’t, then you’ll need a lawyer and that may cost more than the shares are worth…
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