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Equity 101 for founders and employees

Carta Free Beginner

A working glossary of the words on your cap table, from the company that stores most of them, so the jargon stops getting in the way.

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Curated reading that points you to the sources, not personalised investment advice.

It answers 8 questions

  1. What actually happens when my ESOPs vest?
  2. My ESOPs look valuable on paper. Is that real money yet?
  3. How does a founder secondary actually happen, mechanically?
  4. How do I tell if an ESOP grant in a job offer is any good?
  5. My net worth is almost all startup equity on paper. Is that real wealth or not?
  6. What happens to my ESOPs when the company gets acquired?
  7. How do I track my startup ESOPs and equity alongside my mutual funds and stocks?
  8. What is a strike price, and why does it matter for my ESOPs?

Read with it

  1. The most thorough plain-language reference on vesting, cliffs, strike prices, and exercise windows. Read it once and stop being... Holloway Guide The Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation Holloway
  2. A plain-language India primer on what an ESOP actually is, how vesting and exercise work, and how it is taxed. ClearTax Article What is an ESOP? Meaning, taxation, and how it works ClearTax
  3. The clearest short piece on how to think about giving up and holding equity, and why a smaller slice of a bigger outcome is the... paulgraham.com Essay The Equity Equation Paul Graham
  4. The India-specific piece: perquisite tax at exercise, capital gains at sale, and the startup deferral, with worked examples in... ClearTax Article How ESOPs are taxed in India ClearTax
  5. A calm explainer of what a secondary actually is, who has to approve it, and how the price gets set, before you raise it with... Carta Article How secondary sales work at private companies Carta
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