Evolving Your Compensation Plan on the Road to IPO

How to get your company’s comp plan IPO-ready.

Navigating Liquidity During Market Uncertainty

How to navigate shareholder liquidity needs during market volatility.

Designing a Sales Compensation Plan

How to structure and manage a sales comp plan.

Is it Time to Recalibrate Your Compensation Strategy?

Considerations for comp budget adjustments, pay transparency and employee communication.

Navigating Pay Transparency Laws

Why, where, and how to comply with pay transparency laws.
409A Valuations in Turbulent Market

409A Valuations in Turbulent Market Conditions

How to navigate a lower 409A or option repricing.
looking up at golden gate bridge

Total Rewards: Communicating the Value of Equity

Strategies for communicating the value of equity and total rewards.

Navigating the Shift from Options to RSUs: The Why, When and How

What to consider when transitioning between different equity grant types.
Should You Offer an Employee Bonus Program

Should You Offer an Employee Bonus Program?

CFOs and CHROs weigh the pros and cons of bonus programs and how to properly implement them.
5 Considerations for Implementing Location-based Compensation

5 Considerations for Implementing Location-based Compensation

As a CFO, how do you help manage the transition of your board of directors from a private company to a public company? Four battle-tested CFO’s shared their experience and advice with The Circle Community.
2022 Comp Trends

2022 Compensation Trends: Pay Transparency, Distributed Workforces & Total Rewards

As a CFO, how do you help manage the transition of your board of directors from a private company to a public company? Four battle-tested CFO’s shared their experience and advice with The Circle Community.

The 409a Valuation Process

Stock options have been a way for startups to incentivize employees but with them comes regulatory requirements in the form of a 409A valuation for startups.

Stock Options and Other Equity Compensation Strategies

Incentivizing employees with stock options is common in startups, but it can be difficult to know which types of stock options to provide at each stage.
Compensation for your Sales Team - Getting it Right

Compensation for Your Sales Team – Getting it Right

Sales compensation is often rife with difficulty and unintended consequences. Leading startup CFOs and a Deloitte principal discuss how to get it right.
Changes in the Market (IPO, Direct Listing, SPAC) with Morgan Stanley

What’s Going on Below the (Exit) Waves w/ Morgan Stanley

Team Morgan Stanley helped provide some context behind the robust valuations, changing strategies, and structural innovations of today’s market, and offered their advice for how emerging leaders can capitalize on these trends for future success. 
SPAC - An Alternate Route to Going Public

SPAC – An Alternate Route to Going Public

Representing 40% of the entire IPO market today, SPACs are quickly becoming an alternative way for venture-backed companies to go public.  But what exactly are SPACs?  How do they work? How do they differ from a traditional IPO? And why the recent hype?
Reduction in Workforce Packages

To RIF or Not to RIF and The Consensus if You RIF

The CFO|Circle (65 attendees!) convened to discuss a topic most don't ever want to live through, but now many are - Reduction in Workforce (RIF). Together they've identified the do's and dont's of executing a RIF, from where to start to what to offer and how to best communicate with their employees.
Handling 409A Valuations In the Era of COVID-19

Handling 409A Valuations In the Era of COVID-19

The CFO|Circle came together with Steve Liu (Shareworks, SVB, KPMG) to share insights on whether the current volatile market might impact valuations of private companies and, if so, steps CFOs might take to position their companies for this reassessment.

Incentive Stock Option Expiration Date Problem

As more and more startups elect to stay private for longer, the mandated 10-year expiration date on incentive stock options is becoming a real problem.

Secondary Stock Sales: A Brief History

Secondary stock sales have always been possible, but their popularity has soared in the last 10 years. Learn about the history secondary transactions & market.

Section 1202 Stock: The QSBS Gain Exclusion

A little-known tax incentive for investing in qualified small businesses can help investors get $10M tax-free.
A Legal Guide to Secondaries

A Legal Guide to Secondaries

For private companies, deciding whether and how employees may sell shares can be tricky. On one hand.
Why the Stock Options System is Broken

Why the Stock Option System is Broken

Incentive stock options plans were originally designed to encourage employees to patiently help build startups over the long term.
How the New Tax Law Impacts Startup Equity

How the New Tax Law (Section 83(i)) Impacts Startup Equity

Countless workers have been hit with surprise tax bills after they exercise options, the result of Internal Revenue Service rules that haven’t always been friendly to startups.
Running an Employee Tender Offer Without a Big Tax Hit: How to Structure a Secondary So it Doesn’t Count as Compensation

How to Avoid a Big Tax Hit on Secondary Employee Tender Offers

In Silicon Valley, a tender offer that allows longtime employees at high-performing startups to get some liquidity is fast becoming an expected benefit. While secondary stock sales have always been possible, their popularity—and legitimacy—has soared in the past 10 years as successful companies put off IPOs in favor of staying private