You can think of VSOPs as your chance to own a share in the company. The concept is common in early-stage high-growth companies, as it aligns company success with personal employee outcome. Some early employees at Google, Celonis and Stripe are millionaires today, because they chose shares in the company as a compensation. Especially in early stages, it’s often a way for startups to acquire the best talent when the possibility of high cash compensation is limited.
At Emidat, we want everyone to feel true ownership of the company and participate if we are successful. So, every full-time employee receives shares and we allocated a relatively large percentage of the company to Emidavincis.
Since you are joining at an early stage and Emidat has been growing very healthily, your share value may increase significantly in the years to come. For example, the value of the shares of our early team members has doubled within a year after they received them, the company valuation tripled during this time. With your contribution, you can influence the company trajectory and benefit from any great decisions we make as a company. However, company shares are like an investment, which should be based on your risk appetite.
This page is intended to give you an overview on the concept of VSOPs (the best legal way to enable employee shares in Germany), in case you are unfamiliar. Scroll to the bottom if you are familiar and want to skip straight to the Emidat VSOP terms.
A VSOP (Virtual Stock Option Plan) gives employees the right to receive monetary benefits equivalent to owning shares in the company without actually holding physical shares.
What’s in it for you? It aligns the employee's success with the company's growth and valuation, rewarding them upon a liquidity event (e.g., acquisition or IPO). If the company grows, your potential payout grows as well.