Option Pool

The reserved bucket of company shares set aside for future employee equity grants. Plain-language explainer with examples. Free to read.

Option Pool

The reserved bucket of company shares set aside for future employee equity grants.

What Option Pool means

Option pools are usually sized 10–20% of fully-diluted equity. Investors almost always require the pool to be topped up pre-money at a priced round — which dilutes founders and existing shareholders, not new investors.

Negotiate pool size against your actual hiring plan for the next 18–24 months. Blindly accepting a 20% pre-money pool costs founders real ownership.

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•By Alejandro Cremades