Solution
Make employee equity understandable.
Equity only motivates people who understand it. Perseids gives employees a clear view of their own grant — vested, unvested, strike, timeline and indicative value — while the company keeps pools, grants and exercises on the same ledger as the rest of the cap table.
The employee equity dashboard
An option holder signs in and sees their own position only. Nothing else on the cap table is exposed.
- Grant size, in options rather than a vague percentage.
- Vested and unvested counts as of today.
- Strike price and the total exercise cost of the vested portion.
- Indicative value at a valuation the company chooses to publish.
- A vesting timeline showing the cliff and each future tranche.
Indicative values are illustrations based on inputs you provide. They are not a valuation, a promise of value, or tax advice.
What-if simulator
Most equity confusion comes from questions nobody can answer on a payslip. The simulator lets an employee change one variable at a time and see the arithmetic behind the result.
- 1Change the company valuation and see the gross value of the vested portion.
- 2Apply expected dilution from a future round and see the effect on the same grant.
- 3Move exercise timing and compare the cost of exercising now against exercising later.
- 4Model an exit at a given price to see proceeds after exercise cost.
Grant management for the company
| Step | What the company does |
|---|---|
| Pool | Create and size an option pool, and track what remains unallocated |
| Grant | Issue a grant with quantity, strike, start date, vesting schedule and cliff |
| Vesting | Vesting accrues automatically from the schedule — no monthly spreadsheet update |
| Exercise | Record an exercise; shares are issued and the ledger updates |
| Cancellation | Record leavers and lapses so the pool returns to available |
Pool
- What the company does
- Create and size an option pool, and track what remains unallocated
Grant
- What the company does
- Issue a grant with quantity, strike, start date, vesting schedule and cliff
Vesting
- What the company does
- Vesting accrues automatically from the schedule — no monthly spreadsheet update
Exercise
- What the company does
- Record an exercise; shares are issued and the ledger updates
Cancellation
- What the company does
- Record leavers and lapses so the pool returns to available
Clear communication reduces support load
When employees can see their grant and model it themselves, finance stops fielding the same four questions before every round and every offer renewal. It also removes the most common source of disputes: an offer letter that says one thing and a register that says another.
Where an employee wants liquidity rather than paper, a company can open a controlled secondary process instead of an ad-hoc private sale.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an employee stock option plan?
- It is a scheme under which a company reserves a pool of shares and grants employees the right to buy a set number of them at a fixed strike price, usually subject to vesting. The plan sets the rules; each grant applies them to one person.
- How does vesting work?
- Vesting releases a grant over time, commonly over four years with a one-year cliff: nothing vests until the cliff, then a first tranche vests and the rest accrues periodically. Perseids derives vested and unvested counts from the schedule and the current date.
- Can employees see estimated value?
- Yes, when the company publishes a reference valuation. The portal shows an indicative value and the exercise cost behind it, clearly labelled as an illustration rather than a valuation.
- Can Perseids model dilution for option holders?
- Yes. The what-if simulator applies expected dilution from a future round to a specific grant so an employee can see the effect on their own position.
- Can companies manage multiple option pools?
- Yes. Pools are separate records with their own size and allocation tracking, and each grant is attached to a pool.
Put this into practice with Perseids.
Manage employee equity