negotiate-equity-compensation

name	negotiate-equity-compensation
category	money
description	Negotiate equity compensation by comparing instrument, quantity, ownership basis, vesting, dilution, tax, liquidity, forfeiture, documents, and alternatives. Use when an offer includes options, shares, units, or another ownership claim.

negotiate-equity-compensation

When to use

• Use with written grant terms and obtain qualified tax, legal, and financial advice.
• Do not treat headline share count or company valuation as guaranteed value.

Procedure

1. Identify instrument, issuer, entity, shares or units, class, and ownership denominator.
2. Review price, vesting, cliff, acceleration, performance, expiry, exercise, and forfeiture.
3. Obtain plan, grant, cap-table basis where available, valuation, preferences, and liquidity terms.
4. Model dilution, tax, exercise cost, exit, termination, and zero-value scenarios.
5. Compare cash, equity, risk, concentration, and personal liquidity.
6. Request specific changes or information and confirm final documents.

Failure plan

• Value unresolved or inaccessible terms conservatively, including zero where appropriate.

Worked example

A large option count has a short post-termination exercise window and high exercise cost, changing the negotiation priority.

Done

• An equity comparison report records instrument, quantity, denominator, terms, documents, scenarios, advice needs, asks, and decision
• Entity, class, valuation, dilution, tax, vesting, exercise, termination, liquidity, and final-document checks verify understanding