SmartFunds

Tokenizing startup equity is going to solve one of the great injustices of the venture-backed startup model. Employees of successful startups often end up as indentured servants, having large amounts of options that, should they leave, must be purchased typically on a very short timeframe. And very often, buying those options requires huge amounts of liquidity, or, doing so will incur a massive tax bill as employees must pay capital gains on the delta between their purchase price and the latest 409a. And so after vesting, early employees of growth startups simply cannot leave, even if they want to. Their career mobility stalls until a sale or IPO. So what happens instead: thousands of employees leave startups each year and simply give up their options entirely. Which were granted on the premise of lower pay in exchange for ownership. Typically, only founders and high-level execs will have any secondary opportunities, which often are done on a significant discount to fair market value. Anyone that works in crypto has a dramatically different experience. There’s tremendous mobility and you can keep the rewards of your work. It’s just how it should work. Eventually, the best talent will demand that they get paid with tokens instead of options. And I am certain this is how internet capital markets will win even at the early stage.

Tokenized equities are going to be everywhere. Today they even found their way to page 83 of Figma's revised S-1.