HN user
working on https://withcompound.com/
Tender offers can be pretty tricky for employees to navigate
Put together a quick guide all about taxes/financial implications of participating in a tender offer: https://manual.withcompound.com/chapters/what-to-do-if-your-...
I help work on Compound (https://withcompound.com/) (author of the essay also works at Compound).
We help tech employees manage their finances and specialize in equity compensation.
Our essay on equity and taxes may also be useful to those looking to better understand stock options: https://manual.withcompound.com/equity-guide-for-employees-a...
Compound (YC S19) | Remote, SF, CA & NYC | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/ We build products to help people who work in tech optimize their finances. We've grown from 0 to many billions on the platform in the past year - opportunity to make a massive impact.
We're hiring:
* Engineers && designers: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/compound
Apply or email jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | Remote, SF, CA & NYC | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We build products to help people who work in tech optimize their finances. We've grown from 0 to many billions on the platform in the past year - opportunity to make a massive impact.
We're hiring:
* Fullstack engineer https://jobs.lever.co/compound/303d6057-520a-4b63-98cd-fa764...
Apply or email jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA & NYC | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We're a financial manager for startup founders and employees—building the financial products we've always wanted ourselves (like stock option optimization). We've grown from 0 to many billions on the platform in the past few months - opportunity to make a massive impact.
We're hiring:
* Product designer https://jobs.lever.co/compound/d66f7628-78dd-401e-be58-b4625...
* Fullstack engineer https://jobs.lever.co/compound/303d6057-520a-4b63-98cd-fa764...
Apply or email jordan@withcompound.com
This is really neat! We've been hacking on a version of this at Compound http://withcompound.com/ , built specifically for folks who have illiquid assets like startup equity. Similar tools that help you model out your finances/taxes.
May find useful!
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA & NYC | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We're a financial manager for startup founders and employees—building the financial products we've always wanted ourselves (like stock option optimization). We've grown from 0 to billions on the platform in the past few months - opportunity to join early and make a massive impact.
We're hiring:
* Fullstack engineer https://jobs.lever.co/compound/303d6057-520a-4b63-98cd-fa764...
* Backend engineer https://jobs.lever.co/compound/f4d59270-3f08-49f1-9326-0e010...
Apply or email jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We're a financial manager for startup founders and employees—building the financial products we've always wanted ourselves (like stock option optimization).
We're hiring:
* Financial manager https://withcompound.com/career/finance-specialist
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/career/swe-fullstack
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Hey there (co-founder of Compound here). You’re correct—timing of the payout is critical. We try to show that in the left-hand-side (today, 3, years, at IPO) but there’s more nuance to provide (e.g., are you applying AMT credits to your net outcome, is QSBS accounted for, etc.?). The example also includes that exercise and sale occur in separate years and that that sale is being realized as a long-term capital gain. The net tax liability we’re showing is the sum of taxes owed at exercised (AMT, which is often a credit) and taxes owed at sale (LTCG). We’re adding more specificity to this and future essays (as there are infinite permutations we can make).
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We're a financial manager for startup founders and employees—building the financial products we've always wanted ourselves (like stock option optimization).
We're hiring:
* Financial manager https://withcompound.com/career/finance-specialist
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/career/swe-fullstack
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/
We're a financial manager for startup founders and employees—building the financial products we've always wanted ourselves (like stock option optimization). We're growing quickly to meet demand.
We're especially hiring engineers:
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/career/swe-fullstack
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/career/swe-frontend
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite & Remote | https://withcompound.com/ Compound does wealth management for people who work at technology companies. We build software to help you optimize your startup equity and manage your wealth. We are a well funded team moving quickly!
Hiring engineers:
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/fullstack-software-engineer
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/frontend-software-engineer
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | https://withcompound.com/ Compound does financial management for people who work at technology companies. We build software to help you optimize your startup equity and manage your wealth. We are a well funded team moving quickly!
Hiring engineers:
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/fullstack-software-engineer
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/frontend-software-engineer
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | https://withcompound.com/ Compound helps you optimize your finances. Through automation and abstraction, we eliminate the complexity of wealth management to maximize your upside. We help you manage your startup equity, forecast tax implications, and organize your financial life.
We are a small, well funded team based in San Francisco. We are growing really quickly.
Our open positions:
* Design lead (email below)
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/fullstack-software-engineer
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/frontend-software-engineer
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | https://withcompound.com/
Compound helps you optimize your finances. Through automation and abstraction, we eliminate the complexity of wealth management to maximize your upside. We help you manage your startup equity, forecast tax implications, and organize your financial life.
We are a small, well funded team based in San Francisco. We are growing really quickly.
Our open positions:
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/fullstack-software-engineer
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/frontend-software-engineer
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Compound (YC S19) | San Francisco, CA | Onsite | https://withcompound.com/
Compound optimizes your finances. We build software to democratize access to impactful financial, tax, and legal products. We help you manage your equity, forecast tax implications, and set up your financial life.
We are a small, well funded team based in San Francisco. We are growing really quickly.
Our open positions:
* Fullstack engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/fullstack-software-engineer
* Frontend engineer https://withcompound.com/careers/frontend-software-engineer
Contact us: jordan@withcompound.com
Worth noting, even if you have an extended exercise window (i.e 10 years), your ISOs will turn into NSOs after 90 days since your departure (and thus have a different tax treatment!).
As the author mentions, these sort of decisions can be very nuanced (thinking about valuation, dilution, liquidation preference, exit value, etc.).
Happy to help anyone thinking through these situations.
Put together some helpful resources and tools here: https://withcompound.com/equity
Some other useful guides:
https://www.holloway.com/g/equity-compensation
https://fortune.com/2016/09/27/the-complete-guide-to-underst...
Good feedback—we're fixing!
Thanks!
Sent you an email!
Hey thanks for the kind words and for calling this out.
Perhaps it is a bit misleading but the calculator is working as designed. The Vesting Start Date is the "first day your stock has vested" which, in that example, would be at the one-year cliff.
Hope that makes sense, we will try to think of a better design so this is clearer.
Thanks for these links.
Thinking we will see amplification of this topic as employees, founders, investors, and hiring platforms bring more transparency to equity and compensation. Would love to hear any ideas that stick out to you.
Thanks for the kind words!
We see many large && important problems to solve in this space. Successful solutions will demand a long-term mindset but we are hopeful the right combination of product + technology + capital will unlock tremendous impact and value.
thanks, fixed!
Thanks!
We aim to provide leverage to employees so they can make better decisions. We are starting with closing the information gap but, as you point out, there are tons of (very nuanced) problems that need solving.
We definitely want to encourage dialogue around equity compensation policies.
Do you have plans (even if only a few words of an idea) to do anything beyond this?
We believe the next generation of wealth will come from equity owners. There are hundreds of thousands of people—across the US—who need helping managing their equity.
Today’s financial industry is poorly set up to serve this growing set of people who will have a wide array of complicated, expensive First World Problems in the next 10 years.
We hope to fix this!
Thanks for the questions!
If you're affecting startup employees' (and prospectives') perceptions of compensation, how do you deal with the appearance of potential conflict of interest, as a YC startup (which presumably has an interest in hiring and compensation by its startups)?
Our customer is the employee. We're not going to put YC or employers ahead of them.
Also, do you have some kind of official fiduciary obligation, as part of giving financial advice? And if so, to whom? How will giving financial advice mesh with offering financial products?
We're not currently providing financial advice. We're purely focused on education—helping people understand their equity. We anticipate this will change in the future (and when that happens we will seek RIA certification).