Our Stock Option pledge

I appreciate the thinking here and message but am concerned about this line &quot;This will cost a few hundred dollars at most&quot;.<p>Clearbit has raised a $2M seed round from top-tier investors implying a post-money valuation likely over $6M. A conservative FMV of the common shares would suggest a $1.2M valuation. To exercise a 0.5% of total equity grant would cost $6,000. Something doesn&#x27;t add up here.<p>If I am correct, will Clearbit help its employees exercise their options?<p>See: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fenwick.com&#x2F;publications&#x2F;pages&#x2F;playing-with-fire-loans-to-exercise-options.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fenwick.com&#x2F;publications&#x2F;pages&#x2F;playing-with-fire...</a>

As someone who recently got stuck in poor option execution situation, this is great. It is certainly better for companies to compete with each other on transparency and honesty - rather than foosball and free meals.<p>A big problem is all the inertia in the marketplace where Option Pools, and policies of many companies are already established and written into investment rounds, legal paperwork and usually needs a board decision that may not be in their own interests.<p>It would be awesome if Glassdoor has some sort of info about this(Option Exercise Policy: XXXX) per company.

I came across a very good article on HN about funding. It gives you a complete explanation to know what happen to your stocks through each series. The charts and the dynamic ones at the end are making it even better:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dlopuch.github.io&#x2F;venture-dealr&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dlopuch.github.io&#x2F;venture-dealr&#x2F;</a>

This is obviously good for recruiting. BUT: It would be helpful for employees relying on the representations in this letter to have the commitment of the lead investors to this policy. It would also be helpful to see an accounting set-aside to cover the costs of the policy.<p>The problem here is that the CEO is &quot;fighting the good fight&quot; on behalf of insiders, but he may be fighting that fight against the investors.<p>Guess who wins in that case?

I&#x27;m glad more companies are removing the stock option golden handcuffs. Pinterest made a similar move last year: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@michaeldeangelo&#x2F;unlocking-the-golden-handcuffs-6ac855a371f9" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@michaeldeangelo&#x2F;unlocking-the-golden-han...</a>

This is a great trend that I&#x27;m seeing a lot of YC companies do. Early Exercise + 83b is an absolute must for all seed stage companies.<p>I really like the notion of helping employees exercise their options too with cash compensation and it&#x27;s something we&#x27;re looking into too at Pachyderm as we just started hiring.<p>What&#x27;s the legal structure of that cash repayment? Is it a bonus or can the company just pay the exercise price themselves and that&#x27;s that?

Is this a binding contractual commitment, or just PR that can be repudiated later?

As a startup founder, I have every intention on following suit here. I really appreciate Alex for his transparency and for fighting the good fight.

That&#x27;s great! Would you be willing to share the paperwork you used, so others can build off your docs?

This doesn&#x27;t address equity preference which is another common problem. But still a good statement.

&gt; People should stay because they want to, not because they have to.<p>&quot;From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs&quot;. Just reminded me.