When my co-founder and I sat down to split equity, the vesting schedule felt like paperwork. It isn't. The three decisions inside that schedule—how long vesting runs, whether there's a cliff, and what triggers acceleration—determine who actually owns the company if someone leaves, how investors read your team, and how much leverage you keep in later negotiations. The standard US startup package is a four-year schedule with a one-year cliff, and deviating from it in either direction carries specific, predictable consequences. Here's the framework I wish I'd had when we signed ours.
Vesting Schedule Components: A Comparative Framework
Under the standard structure, nothing vests for the first twelve months; then 25% vests at once and the remaining 75% vests monthly at roughly 1/48th per month, as Stripe's guide to founder vesting describes it. Cooley, the law firm behind much of the canonical founders' stock guidance, notes that founders are often given retroactive vesting credit for work done before incorporation—so a founder who spent a year building the product before forming the company may negotiate a shorter effective clock rather than starting from zero.
Acceleration is where founder schedules diverge most from employee grants. Single-trigger acceleration vests remaining shares upon an acquisition while the founder is still employed. Double-trigger requires both a change of control and an involuntary termination without cause, or a resignation for good reason. Rho's analysis of startup vesting points out that double-trigger is generally the more investor-friendly variant, because an acquirer isn't forced to fully vest founders it might otherwise retain on new terms.
| Component | Standard Practice | Alternative / Emerging Practice | Impact on Founders & Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vesting length | Four years, vesting monthly after the cliff | Longer schedules (discussed in the community at 6–8 years), sometimes paired with stronger founder control rights | Four years is the norm investors expect; longer terms extend commitment but test co-founder patience and are not established market practice |
| Cliff period | One-year cliff: no equity vests until 12 months of service | No cliff, or retroactive credit for pre-incorporation work | Protects remaining founders from early departures; removing it requires justification and investors may view it cautiously |
| Acceleration | Double-trigger: change of control plus termination without cause or resignation for good reason | Single-trigger: full vesting upon acquisition if still employed | Single-trigger favors founders at exit; double-trigger protects the acquiring company and is often preferred by investors |
Read the table as a menu of levers, not a single choice. Each row can be set independently, and each adjustment shifts risk between the departing founder, the remaining team, and future investors.
