Vesting Calculator for Seed Serial Entrepreneur

Vesting Schedules Explained

Vesting schedules ensure that founders and employees earn their equity over time. The standard four-year schedule with a one-year cliff protects the company while rewarding long-term commitment.

Customizing Your Vesting Terms

While the 4-year vest with 1-year cliff is standard, many startups customize terms for different roles. Our calculator lets you explore how different vesting schedules affect equity distribution over time.

How to Use the Vesting Calculator

1. Set the total equity grant and vesting period
2. Configure cliff period and vesting frequency
3. View the vesting timeline month by month
4. Model acceleration triggers for M&A scenarios

When to Use This Calculator

• You are setting up founder vesting as part of your incorporation documents
• You are making an offer to a key hire and need to explain their vesting timeline
• You want to model what happens to unvested shares if a co-founder leaves at various points
• You are negotiating acceleration clauses for an acquisition scenario and need to show the impact

Key Metrics and Formulas

Standard 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff: 0% vests during the first year, 25% vests at the 1-year mark (cliff), then 1/48th of the total grant vests each month after that. Shares vested at month M (where M is 12 or more) equals Total Grant x (M / 48). Single-trigger acceleration vests all unvested shares upon acquisition. Double-trigger acceleration requires both acquisition and termination. Our calculator models all three scenarios and shows vested vs unvested equity at any point in the schedule.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Not vesting founder shares: Investors will require vesting anyway, so set it up proactively on your terms
• Using a cliff for employees longer than 1 year: Longer cliffs increase retention risk and are seen as unfair
• Granting acceleration without understanding the cost: Single-trigger acceleration can give away significant equity in an acquisition
• Forgetting to account for early exercise (83(b) elections): If employees early-exercise, they start the capital gains clock early