Finance Hiring Option Pool 
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
As Finance Fridays continues, we are introducing the concept of the Cap Table. This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. As first time entrepreneurs they did not create an employee options pool; we’ll fix that in a little while. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years.
Rob Go
JUNE 17, 2014
In my last post about raising seed vs. jumping straight to A, I received a good comment from Chris Woods that my analysis neglected to include the impact of option pools that are created at each financing round. Essentially, the new investor wants there to be a certain % of options available to employees after they invest.
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The Next Web
OCTOBER 7, 2013
They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. As stated earlier, investors will dilute ownership upon nearly every round of financing.
SoCal CTO
SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. For example, suppose you're just two founders and you want to hire an additional hacker who's so good you feel he'll increase the average outcome of the whole company by 20%. n = (1.2 - 1)/1.2 =.167. and we have 11.1%
venturehacks.com
OCTOBER 21, 2010
SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS The Option Pool Shuffle by Nivi on April 10th, 2007 “Follow the money card!&# – The Inside Man, Three-Card Shuffle Summary: Don’t let your investors determine the size of the option pool for you. Don’t lose this game. share to $1.00/share:
The Next Web
JUNE 15, 2012
From Silicon Valley to Peoria, Illinois, cash-strapped startups look for inventive way to finance their business – often handing out equity to employees, consultants, vendors, and other service providers. Many young tech startups reserve 15%-20% for employee stock options. It’s a logical solution.
Hunter Walker
AUGUST 7, 2017
But employee option pool is important enough that I wanted to briefly expand upon my comment above. While you should expect these sorts of hires to take below market cash comp versus what Google is paying them, this tradeoff needs to be replaced with equity upside.
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