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See my point about long exercise window - 5-10y is not uncommon now. I’d rather have that even though it converts to PSOs than gamble ~50k + amt on early exercise. Unless you’re super early ofc which changes the math



> 5-10y is not uncommon now

Is it?

I'd be curious on survey data on that if something is available.

Personally I've never encountered a startup that had anything other than the standard 90 day after you quit exercise window. I know these long exercise windows exist but as far as I knew they are pretty rare.

> gamble ~50k

That's a huge number though, I'd never gamble that much either.

I'm talking about very early in the startup. If the strike price is above a few pennies, it's too late (although of course depends on the number of options and your personal budget).


Anecdotally, i've received more offers in the last ~5 years with extended window. I think it's just natural evolution due to increased competition for talent with high-paying public companies. Here's an incomplete list btw[0]. There are usually some strings attached - e.g additional cliff to qualify (like 2-3 years with the company) and you need to sign a separation agreement when leaving, etc

> That's a huge number though, I'd never gamble that much either.

I've been offered early exercise of 25k options with a $2 strike price. Series B startup. So yeah...

[0] - https://github.com/holman/extended-exercise-windows


> https://github.com/holman/extended-exercise-windows

This is a nice list, thanks!

No idea how complete that is, but it lists roughly ~160 companies. Which is nice, but according to [1] there are about 71K startups in the US. (Of course both of these counts might be wrong but let's go with these numbers.)

So about 0.2% of startups have extended exercise windows. Not a lot ;-(

[1] https://github.com/holman/extended-exercise-windows




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