Executive Officer'S Declaration: Fill & Download for Free

Building on the other great responses here which primarily address how to divide up the equity, I want to add my thoughts from a legal perspective.When granting equity to the C-level folks, assuming you have incorporated the company, the following are the key things you should button up from a legal perspective:Vesting: As is important when granting equity/options to any member of the team, you always want to make sure the grants are subject to vesting. For your C-level team, you will likely grant equity in the form of restricted stock as opposed to options. Why should you issue equity subject to vesting? Simply because vesting protects the company in a couple of ways: (a) it makes sure that key team members stay with the company for a certain period of time in order to earn the full amount of their equity grant and (b) if someone does leave the company before their equity vests, unvested equity typically revert back to the company (and be available to be used for others who join the team to replace the person who left). One additional thing to bear in mind is that when granting equity subject to vesting, the recipient should check with their accountant and make an 83(b) election if appropriate to avoid unintended adverse tax consequences.Although there are various ways to structure vesting, the most common approach is to have equity vest over a four-year period with a one-year cliff and monthly vesting thereafter. More on this here: Nait Patel's answer to What does "4 years vesting with 1 year cliff" mean?IP Assignment: It is not uncommon for team members to do work and create work product (e.g. designs, code, etc.) that is valuable to the company. Therefore, it is crucial that as part of receiving equity grants, all team members assign all the IP that is important to the business, to the company. Failing to do so at the onset could result in disputes down the road as to what IP is property of the company and what belongs to a particular individual.Roles, Rights and Responsibilities: When you have more than one founder or key people in a company, in addition to the equity splits and IP assignments, it is crucial to discuss and agree on each person’s rights, duties and responsibilities, capital or asset contributions, removal process and requirements at the onset. Once you reach an agreement on these items, the agreed terms should then documented.In addition, it is equally important to have proper documents in place that govern the business and owners financial and managerial rights and duties. For an LLC, this document is typically referred to as an LLC Operating Agreement (single-member, multi-member or manager-managed). For a c-corporation, this document is typically referred to as the Bylaws.Lastly, when it comes to incentivizing other team members with equity, the typical way this is achieved is through an equity incentive plan. The common approach is to create an option pool that will be reserved for such option grants. From a legal perspective, this requires setting up an equity incentive plan and related grant documentation. To learn more about this, here is a resource that may help: Top 12 Considerations for Your Startup Stock Option Plan - Should I Sign

The average tenure of a CEO is less than 3 years. Why is that? To get CEOs set up for success, you need to measure, manage and accelerate performance.There are three key strategies to accelerate CEO performance and be transparent:1. Develop Agreed Upon Measures of Success:Challenge: There are no well-established measures of success for CEOs. And, it’s not just about the numbers.Solution: Develop tailored measures of success. E.g., (1) Leadership; (2) Strategy; (3) People Management; (4) Operating Metrics; and (5) External Relationships (See article reference)2. Manage Performance:Challenge: Most CEOs don’t have performance reviews.Solution: Develop tailored performance management approaches. E.g., board members gather feedback from internal and external stakeholders on your strengths and opportunities for improvement (See article reference)3. Develop 90-day action plans:Challenge: Most CEOs don’t have a 90-day action plan to build on strengths and address opportunities for improvementSolution: Develop 90-day action plans. E.g., (1) Intentionality; (2) Awareness; (3) Self-Esteem; (4) Reflection; (5) Discipline; (6) Environment and Peer group; (7) Develop strategies in all areas of your life; (8) Learn from Pain; (9) Character growth; (10) Set best fit goals; (11) Let go of the past; (12) Curiosity; (13) Next-step mentors; (14) Daily effectiveness; (15) Put others first

Hi,The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the one who “creates jobs and value”!The CEO job is to align everyone to a common vision, make decisions about the work that others have to do, to oversee the employees and make sure they meet the performance objectives that enrich the company owners.Executives bear a “heavy responsibility” and, they participate in the firm’s success that is not only oriented by past successes; it is also measured by the future success that the company aspires to under the leadership of the relevant CEO.