Ask HN: Share Price of ESOP

Hi HN,

I have the situation that I am in negotiations with investors to sell part of my ESOP.

We raised a successful series A in the past couple of months and the investors claim that discounts of 30-40% of ESOP are deemed "normal", because they have no LiqPref and voting rights.

To me that seems to be too much, so I'm asking whether you have any experience with such a sale and what should be an acceptable discount.

Thank you!

2 comments

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KaisoEnt 1y ago ↗

argue for a lower discount (20-30%) by emphasizing the company’s growth and recent valuation from the Series A round, which shows that your shares still have strong potential value even without the extra protections

alexanderjarvis 1y ago ↗

You have not provided enough info.

Selling out at s-a normally implies leverage and it sounds like you don't have any which is an oxymoron.

You could have sold pari passu if the round was oversubd etc