vesting cliff

Definition

The sadistic waiting period before any of your stock options actually belong to you, typically one year. It's designed to prevent you from taking the job and immediately quitting, essentially holding your compensation hostage for good behavior.

Example Usage

I've been here 11 months waiting for my vesting cliff, so even though I hate this job, I'm staying one more month to get my 25%.

Source: Equity compensation and startup employment terms

Related Terms

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adverse selection

The phenomenon where the worst investment opportunities are most aggressively marketed to investors, while the best deals are oversubscribed and hard to access. If they're begging you to invest, run.

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change of control

Any transaction that transfers majority ownership or control of a company, typically triggering various contractual provisions like vesting acceleration, payment obligations, or approval rights. The legal definition of when your startup stops being yours.

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option pool

A reserve of shares set aside to recruit employees with stock options, typically carved out before valuation to dilute founders rather than investors. A necessary evil that feels like robbery when you're calculating founder ownership.

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Hockey Stick

A growth chart that shows flat revenue followed by a sudden exponential spike, resembling a hockey stick if you squint and ignore the part where most startups never reach the blade. It's the most fictional graph in pitch decks since the invention of PowerPoint.

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inbound interest

When investors, customers, or acquirers proactively reach out to a startup rather than being solicited. It's the entrepreneurial equivalent of being asked to the dance instead of doing the asking.

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unfair advantage

A structural competitive edge that's difficult or impossible for competitors to replicate, like proprietary technology, exclusive partnerships, or regulatory capture. What founders claim to have and what actually exists rarely overlap perfectly.

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