Yes, with SharesPost, equityzen and Forge. Company had a pretty standard policy so approval was straightforward but took a few months and required some legal opinions (costing $,$$$). In my case the deal was for the shares directly. Biggest lesson was really just that the fees really added up (near 10% if under $100k) and it’s a shame more companies don’t do more to broker these deals on employees behalf to get the best price and cut out the middlemen (another employer did this and it was great).
DM if I can help with more info, experience with each company was essentially the same and you should just reach out to all of them to see who has inbound buy requests at the highest price. Worth noting that there is more room for negotiation on price than you might expect.
Ah, interesting that your company had a standard policy for this. I wish mine did as well.
Worried about getting (or even asking for) board approval - what incentive would they have to allow an employee to reduce their stake in the companies success prior to an IPO event?
Owning shares in a pre-ipo company comes with it's own risks. And not wanting to be diluted from future investments is a valid reason to selling your shares.
It's possible for the company to dilute your shares turning them worthless, and then generates new shares. I'm sure there's lots of examples you can find of dilution, but that was what FB did to the former CFO as shown in the movie "The Social Network".
People keep talking about working for soulless companies when deciding to work for startups, but I can't think of a more soulless way to screw over your employees.
Yes, but you have to sue over it. For most people, it's probably not worth it. Besides, since it's a private company, equity is what the board/executives say it is.
Dilution is extremely common and a lot of this funding stuff comes down to businesses strategy. My example was extreme, but there is tons of gray area for this kinda thing
Ah, if you were exaggerating the numbers to explain the concept, I can see how a more subtle screwing would be nonactionable. I thought you were saying they were that blatant
I think it certainly can be that significant or more. Someone else mentioned Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin. At IPO, Zuckerbergs's equity was down to 28% and Eduardo had been diluted down to 2%.
That is a co-founder of a high profile unicorn with continuous growth. Now imagine what can happen to employee # 1000 at a shady middle cap startup struggling to get to market.
DM if I can help with more info, experience with each company was essentially the same and you should just reach out to all of them to see who has inbound buy requests at the highest price. Worth noting that there is more room for negotiation on price than you might expect.