Share Class: the Share Council webinar on employee ownership

Topics from past sessions

1. 1

   Why give employees equity at all

   The hiring and retention case for employee ownership, and why Europe still lags the US on it.

2. 2

   How big the option pool should be

   Pick your own number before a term sheet picks it for you. What founders typically set aside at pre-seed and seed, what that costs you in dilution, and how to hold the line when an investor asks for more.

3. 3

   Which instrument fits

   Options over a future STAK, depository receipts (certificaten) issued through a STAK, SARs or plain shares. What each one asks of you in setup time, notary work and yearly admin.

4. 4

   Where the strike price comes from

   How the number is built, what you keep on file for the tax office, and how a valuation supports it. Granting options early does not save tax. In the Netherlands the tax falls on the gain when the option is exercised, or later if the shares only become tradable then (Wet op de loonbelasting 1964, art. 10a). The reason to start early is fairness: your first people get a bigger share of what they help build, and everyone hired after them sees the precedent.

5. 5

   Vesting, cliffs and leavers

   Four years with a one-year cliff is the usual default. The leaver clause is where founders get hurt, so we go through one line by line.

6. 6

   The STAK, and selling before an exit

   How a STAK holds the shares while employees hold depository receipts, and how internal trading lets people sell part of their stake when there is no exit in sight.