A list of startups that have employee-friendly terms for exercising your options past the (current) norm of 90 days.
For more information, read this post.
| Name | Exercise Window | Additional details |
|---|---|---|
| Ada | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Aerotime | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Agora | 10 years | |
| Alan | 7 years | |
| Alloy | 10 years | |
| Alto | 2 years | After 2 years of employment |
| AngelList | 10 years | |
| Atlan | 10 years | (https://handbook.atlan.com/team-handbook/doing-the-best-for-yourself/compensation) |
| AtoB | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| BaseDash | 10 years | |
| Begin | 2-5 years | After 2 years of employment, with each year of employment adding another year to the window |
| Bonsai | 10 years | |
| Blissfully | 5 years | |
| Braid | 5 years | |
| Brex | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Buffer | 10 years | |
| Buildkite | 15 years | |
| BuildZoom | 10 years | |
| Carmera | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Carta | 1 year for each year of vesting | |
| Castle | 10 year | |
| Checkr | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Cinder | 10 years | |
| Circle Medical | 5 years | |
| Clearbit | 10 years | |
| Clippings | 10 years | |
| CodeCombat | 10 years | |
| Codility | 10 years | |
| CoinTracker | 10 years | |
| Column Tax | 10 years | |
| Cyscale Security | 3 years | After 3 years of employment |
| DataCamp | 1 year for each year of vesting | |
| Desmos | 7 years | |
| Earthly | 10 years | After 3 years of employment |
| Eve | 7 years | |
| Even | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Expensify | 2 years | After 3 years of employment |
| Experiment | 7 years | |
| Felt | 10 years | |
| Flexport | 10 years | |
| Freshpaint | 10 years | |
| Ginkgo Bioworks | 5 years | |
| GiveCampus | 10 years | |
| Glitch | 10 years | |
| GoCardless | 10 years | |
| Gusto | 10 years | After 3 years of employment |
| Heap | 10 years | |
| Her | 3 years | |
| Hightouch | 10 years | |
| Honeycomb | 1-7 years | 2 months per month of vesting after 1 year of employment |
| Hykso | 3 years | |
| Infracost | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Intellimize | 2 years | |
| Ironclad | 3 years | |
| Kayako | 10 years | |
| Kickback | 7 years | |
| Kickstarter | 10 years | |
| Kite | 10 years | After 3 years of employment |
| Ladder | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Lattice | 3 years | |
| Lawn Love | 7 years | |
| Lightstep | 1 year | |
| Linear | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Lingokids | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Loom | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Mashgin | 10 years | |
| MagicBell | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Meadow | 10 years | |
| Mercury | 7 years | |
| Mixpanel | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Mojo | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Neighborly | 10 years | |
| Netlify | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Niantic | 10 years | |
| Notion | 10 years | |
| Ockam | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Omada Health | 5 years | After 3 years of employment |
| OneSignal | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Open Listings | 3 years | |
| OpsLevel | 10 years | |
| Otter | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Outlier AI | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Outschool | 10 years | |
| Oxide | 7 years | |
| Pachyderm | 3 years | |
| Patreon | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Persista | 1 year | |
| Pex | 10 years | |
| PhotoRoom | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Pilot | 10 years | |
| PostHog | 10 years | Read about it in the open source company handbook |
| Postman | 10 years | |
| Postscript | 8 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Puppet | 1 year | After 2 years of employment |
| Quora | 10 years | |
| Razorpay | 7 years | |
| ReadMe | 10 years | |
| Render | 5 to 10 years | 5 years after 2 years of employment; 10 years after 4 years of employment |
| RevenueCat | 10 years | |
| Rewatch | 7 years | |
| Saleswhale | 10 years | |
| Scale | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Science Exchange | 7 years | |
| Seed | 5 years | |
| Secfi | 5 years | |
| SigOpt | 7 years | |
| Skyflow | 10 years | |
| Smallstep | 10 years | |
| Snapdocs | 10 years | |
| Sourcegraph | 10 years | |
| Strava | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Streak | 10 years | |
| Supabase | 10 years | |
| Swing Education | 5 years | |
| Teachers Pay Teachers | Practically forever | Makes taxes slightly more complicated, but we offer a tax prep reimbursement benefit |
| Temporal | 10 years | |
| Tettra | 5 years | |
| Thread | 10 years | |
| Tines | 5 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Toplyne | 10 years | |
| TransferWise | 10 years | |
| Treasury Prime | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Trim | 7 years | |
| Triplebyte | 10 years | |
| Unflow | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Wasmer | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Wave | 10 years | |
| Wefunder | 3 years | |
| WizeHire | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Zenysis | 10 years |
There are some companies that started out with an extended exercise window, but reached some sort of endpoint (IPO, acquisition, etc) where an exercise window isn't relevant these days. It's still great to see these companies start from solid beginnings, though, so we'd still like to continue to acknowledge them here, especially since they likely have chosen other fair policies that still are important today.
| Name | Exercise Window | Additional details |
|---|---|---|
| Affirm | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Alien Labs | 10 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Amplitude | 10 years | |
| Asana | 10 years | |
| Clef | 7 years | |
| Coinbase | 7 years | After 2 years of employment |
| Cymmetria | 3 years | |
| Instacart | 7 years | |
| Opendoor | 3 years | After 3 years of employment |
| 7 years | After 2 years of employment | |
| Segment | 10 years | |
| Supply | 10 years | |
| Upstart | 10 years |
It's worth noting that Andreessen Horowitz has come out in strong favor of the 90 day window. If you feel strongly about extended exercise windows, it might be worth considering whether a16z portfolio companies are a good fit for you.