Founder Vesting Acceleration: Single vs Double Trigger
Written by Harry Prabandham
Curated by Rubric Financial
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What Vesting Acceleration Is
- Acceleration provisions speed up the vesting of unvested founder shares when specific events occur, typically an acquisition (change of control)
- Without acceleration, a founder with 2 years of unvested shares who gets acquired must stay at the acquiring company for 2 more years to keep all their equity
- Acceleration protects founders from losing earned-but-unvested equity in scenarios they don't control
- The two standard types are single trigger (accelerate on acquisition alone) and double trigger (accelerate on acquisition + involuntary termination)
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About the author
Harry PrabandhamFounder & CEO
Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.
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