Flagon: We build software in the open.

We want everyone building Flagon to own a real piece of it. If this works, the people who made it work should share in what they built, not just watch someone else cash out. So equity isn't a perk reserved for executives here. Everyone gets a meaningful option grant as part of their compensation, on terms we've deliberately made as team-friendly as we can.

This page explains how that works in plain language. It is not tax or legal advice: equity is genuinely individual, so for anything specific to your situation, talk to your own accountant. We'll help you find one if you need.

The terms, up front

A real grant, for everyone. As part of your offer you receive an option to buy stock in the company. Roughly how much is set by your level, the same framework we use for salary, so it isn't a negotiation.
Four-year vesting, one-year cliff. You vest 25% after your first year, then monthly over the following three years, fully vested at four. Vesting starts on your start date, not after some "probation period."
A ten-year window to exercise. If you leave, you have ten years from the grant date to exercise your vested options. The industry standard is a brutal 90 days, which quietly forces people to either find a lot of cash fast or walk away from what they earned. We think that's mean, so we don't do it.
Double-trigger acceleration. If Flagon is ever acquired and you're let go in connection with that, your unvested options vest immediately. This protection is usually reserved for executives; we extend it to everyone, because it's the fair version.
You only lose vested options for genuine cause. Resigning, being let go for performance, redundancy: in all of these you keep every option you've vested. Only real misconduct (fraud, material harm to the company) forfeits vested equity.

The questions everyone actually has

What is a stock option?

It's the right to buy shares in Flagon at a fixed price (the "strike price" or "exercise price") set on the day it's granted, no matter what the shares are worth later. If the company grows and the shares become worth more than your strike price, that difference is yours. "Exercising" just means choosing to buy those shares at that fixed price.

What does vesting mean?

You don't get the whole grant on day one, otherwise someone could join for a week and walk away with a chunk of the company. Instead it's earned over four years on the schedule above. Vesting starts your first day.

What are my options actually worth?

Honestly? Nobody can tell you for certain, and anyone who claims to is selling something. The shares are private and illiquid, so there's no live market price. We can tell you the strike price and the most recent formal valuation, but that's a snapshot, not a promise. Equity is real upside if the company does well and worth nothing if it doesn't, and we'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.

What happens to my options if I leave?

You keep everything you've vested, and you have ten years from the grant date to exercise it. Vesting stops the day you leave, but nothing you've already earned disappears. The only exception is being let go for genuine cause, as above.

Are there tax implications?

Yes, and they depend heavily on where you are and what you do, which is exactly why we can't advise you on them. Exercising and selling options can each trigger tax. Where we're able to, we grant options in the most tax-advantaged form your jurisdiction allows, but the rules are individual. Before you exercise anything, talk to a tax advisor. This is the one place where "just wing it" can cost you real money.

Someone messaged me offering to buy my Flagon shares. Should I?

No. Don't engage. Our shares can't be transferred without board approval, so any deal a random platform or cold DM offers you simply isn't valid, no matter how it's dressed up. If there's ever a legitimate way to sell some of your equity, it will come directly from us, announced to the whole team at once, never from a LinkedIn ad. If you're approached and unsure, ask us in the open.

Can I suggest changes to my option agreement?

Generally no, and that's on purpose. We use one standard set of agreements for everyone, pre-approved and consistent, so nobody gets a secretly better or worse deal than the person next to them. The trade is that the standard terms are already written to be as team-friendly as we could make them. If you spot an actual error in your paperwork, of course tell us.

How do I keep track of all this?

Your grants, vesting, strike price, and what it would cost to exercise all live in the cap-table tool we use, signed in with your Flagon email. You'll always be able to see exactly where you stand.

The deal we'd want ourselves

We designed the equity terms to be the version we'd want if the roles were reversed: everyone included, a long window to exercise, protection if we're acquired, and nothing clawed back for leaving on normal terms. If any of that ever stops being true, it's a bug worth raising.

Still have a question this doesn't answer? Ask in the open, in Discord or at hey@flagon.io, and we'll add the answer here.