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Looking for an advice on getting shares at a company

Hi all,

My employer (a small company with 3 owners, 33% each) agrees to give me some shares of the company after I have been working for them for a couple of years. Every owner will share equal amount of the shares.

My question is what the best way for me to get these shares?

They are considering two ways to do that:

  1. Selling some shares directly, so that I have to pay now to get them.
  2. Agreeing on a certain price and get shares now while I will have to pay for them only when selling them. If I understand correctly, if the company goes bancrupt, I will still have to pay the shares at agreed price.

Any other good ways I should consider? And any advice on the offered ways?

Thanks a lot!

  1. 1

    There isn't anywhere near enough information given to answer your question in a useful way.

    For example:

    • Where is this company located?
    • What kind of company is it? An LLC, GmbH, AG, C-Corp...
    • Who is selling you the shares? The owners directly? Or is the company increasing the total number of shares and selling some of them to you?
    • Do you have a vesting schedule?
    • ... you get the picture

    If I were you, I'd wait to see what they come up with and then discuss it with a good lawyer or accountant who specialises in startups (this last bit is very important). If you don't think the shares are worth spending a small amount of money on some expert advice for, then it probably doesn't matter whether or how you receive the shares ;)