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A comment on What I Wish I'd Known About Equity Before Joining a Unicorn. Parent comment

Re:What I Wish I'd Known About Equity Before Joining a Unicorn by matthewmcg on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @01:53PM (#13429140)
No, this is a provision in the agreement that's driven by the tax code and IRS regulations. It is required if you want the option to be an incentive stock option. It's not arbitrary.

You're right that you are free to to negotiate a different exercise window prior to accepting your stock grant (and a lot of more progressive companies are offering this). You just can't, under current tax law, get the sometimes beneficial ISO treatment with a longer window.

There's a nice summary of the situation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9254299

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Re:What I Wish I'd Known About Equity Before Joining a Unicorn by stanfordkid on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @02:12PM (#13429335)
You are right -- it's not as black and white as I described.

That being said -- It seems like with some "legal engineering" it can certainly be ameliorated (as was demonstrated by Pinterest). My main point is that if people push for their rights then it will incentivize companies to do the legal engineering that is necessary.

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