Cost of Inaction in Startup Equity

The real risk in startup equity is usually not picking the wrong strategy, it is sleepwalking past a deadline that quietly destroys value. For many employees, the first decision is whether to exercise vested options before a post termination window closes, often around 90 days, because once that window ends the options can expire and return to the company. That is why Compound starts by turning messy equity grants, tax timelines, and company paperwork into a live action plan instead of a static dashboard.

• Compound is built around this exact workflow. It pulls in cap table data from systems like Carta and Shareworks, tracks events like 409A changes and QSBS timelines, stores legal and tax documents, and pairs that software with an advisor who helps decide whether to exercise, hold, sell, or diversify.
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• This problem is common enough to support whole adjacent businesses. Vested focuses specifically on financing option exercises for former employees in the 90 day window, and its view is that 50% to 80% of options can expire unused after termination, which shows how often inaction becomes a financial loss.
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• The broader market context is that newer wealth platforms are winning by handling assets old robo advisors barely touched, like startup equity, fund interests, and private shares. Compound uses private asset tracking as the wedge, then layers on tax work, liquidity help, and portfolio planning, which makes the advice around one equity grant a door into managing the whole balance sheet.
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The next step for this category is moving from reminder software to default operating system for private wealth. As more companies extend exercise windows or employees seek financing before deadlines, the winners will be the firms that catch the decision early, model taxes and liquidity clearly, and then keep the client through secondary sales, diversification, and long term wealth management.