Ask HN: How to buy Vested stock when leaving start up?

9 points·davidcoronado··7 comments

I'm curious how can someone buy their vested stock in a startup when they leave. When their is a 90 day buy back program. Are there any companies that help with this?

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Are you asking how to get a loan to exercise privately held corporate stock?

Read this:

http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/01/how-to-sell-secondary-stock....

One possibility, let's say you have $10,000 of equity which will cost you $5,000. perhaps there's a way to negotiate with the company so that you buy your equity for $5,000 and then you sell $5,000 of equity back to the company, maybe at a discount to the current price. This way you haven't put in any cash and the company is giving up less equity than if you excercised.

If you don't have another option for funding then it's arguably in the company's interest to not do this if it increases the chance that the options expire without being exercised. That way they're giving up even less equity.

(ignoring second-order considerations, etc)

In most cases if you can't afford to buy the stock you really shouldn't. In many cases when you can afford it you still shouldn't.

Would you take out a loan to day trade? Startup stock isn't much different in terms of volatility and outcomes.

The mechanics of how do you send them money? Or how you get the $ to pay them (and the IRS, potentially).

How to get the money buy the vested stock. Are there companies that help with that?

Are you saying you don't have enough cash to exercise your options and looking for someone to loan you money? Otherwise, just mail a cashier's cheque to your CEO/CFO/VPF/etc.

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