Key Takeaways When a foreign parent gives stock options to your team in India, the gain at exercise is taxed in India as salary: the fair market value on the exercise date minus what the…
Key Takeaways Granting ESOPs and having a legally sound ESOP are not the same thing. An option becomes real equity only when an approved scheme, a board grant, a valuation and a signed grant letter…
Key Takeaways Pre-money valuation is what your company is worth before the new money goes in. Post-money is pre-money plus the new investment. Post-money is the number that decides how much of your company you…
Key Takeaways In India, ESOPs are taxed at two separate moments, not one: when you exercise the options, and later when you sell the shares. At exercise, the difference between the fair market value of…
Co-founder vesting is the single cheapest insurance policy a startup can buy, and the one founders skip most often. Two people split the equity 50-50 on day one, shake hands, and start building. Eighteen months…
Most founders treat their ESOP as a single decision. They carve out a pool when an investor asks for one, hand out a few grants, and move on. Then, two rounds later, the pool is…
Key Takeaways A cap table that reconciles in Excel is not the same as a cap table that survives due diligence. Six structural issues commonly hide inside what founders describe as "clean". The most expensive…
Key Takeaways ESOPs in India are not taxed at the time of grant. The tax event happens later. At exercise, the difference between Fair Market Value (FMV) and exercise price is taxed as perquisite (salary…
"Can you share your data room?" This is the first thing every serious investor says after the pitch. And most founders scramble. After reviewing 40+ data rooms in the last year, one pattern is clear:…
"How much equity should I give my CTO?" It is a question founders bring to us at A S Banka Advisors Private Limited, and the honest answer starts with a different question: how many people…
