Legal Hour with Tom & Carlos — Incentivising your team through Employee Share Schemes (Part 1)

Your team is the single biggest determining factor for your startup’s success. Building a great product, unlocking market potential, and attracting loyal customers require expertise and hustle from within. And, no, we do not just mean from within the founding team. Individuals across departments and seniority levels determine whether your company rises to stardom or flops miserably. To attract and retain the right talent, startups use employee ownership as an incentive scheme. Stock options have become tech’s currency. There is a common fear among founders that dilution resulting from a sizable stock option pool is too costly. Though, in reality, it is too costly not to incentivize your team properly. Competition for top talent is just too high to afford doing so. At Seedcamp, we firmly believe that employee ownership is an essential ingredient in advancing the European startup ecosystem. This is why, in the following two episodes of Legal Hour, we dive into the nitty-gritty of employee incentive schemes. Joined by Ian Shaw, a partner at Orrick who heads the London employee share schemes and incentives practice, Tom and Carlos discuss everything founders need to know about designing an effective option plan. In this first episode, the trio clarifies definitions and types of agreements needed to understand the space. Put the kettle on and listen in! Links: Ian Shaw - linkedin.com/in/ian-shaw-6ba480a9/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Index Ventures Rewarding Talent Handbook - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Index Ventures OptionPlan - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com