Incentiv

Incentiv Incentiv is the first secondary market for startup equity. Invest in the most promising startups.

The obvious first thing you do when you get an ESOP offer? See how much it would be worth one day.Everyone wants the Zep...
08/07/2026

The obvious first thing you do when you get an ESOP offer? See how much it would be worth one day.

Everyone wants the Zepto or Swiggy outcome, so you end up expecting the same.

You think...
The company is growing fast.
The founder sounds ambitious.
The investors look solid.
This can become a unicorn someday.

So you open a calculator and run the best-case scenario.
"If this becomes a unicorn, my ESOPs will be worth so much money!"
Suddenly, the grant looks exciting. Maybe even life-changing.

But that's not how stock options should be evaluated.
If your ESOPs only look good in the best case, you're being sold the dream.

The first calculation should not be the unicorn outcome. It should be the boring outcome, the low-ball acquisition, the small buyback.
That's where you find out if your ESOPs are actually meaningful.

Say you own 0.25% of the company today. It's early, it will raise more capital, and your ownership will dilute.
After a few rounds, that 0.25% may become 0.12%. Still not bad.

Now run the numbers again, realistic this time.
At a ₹500 crore exit, 0.12% is ₹60 lakhs.
At a ₹1,000 crore exit, it's ₹1.2 crore.
At a ₹5,000 crore exit, it's ₹6 crore.

Most people jump straight to the ₹6 crore number, the one that makes the risk feel worth it.
But the ₹60 lakh number is the one you should spend more time with.

There's more math left. Consider strike price, taxes, and the risk of no liquidity window when you need the money.

The real value of ESOPs is what survives after dilution, tax, exercise cost, time, and liquidity risk. Much smaller than ₹60 lakh.

This is why "how many options am I getting?" is a weak question. Better questions:
What percentage do I own?
What will this look like after the next few rounds?
What happens in a ₹500 crore exit? A ₹1,000 crore exit?
What will I keep after taxes and exercise cost?
When can I actually sell?

A good ESOP grant should not need a unicorn outcome to make sense. It should feel fair in the base case, meaningful enough to justify the risk of joining early.

Run the boring exit case first. The dream case can come later.

Think equity. Think incentiv.

There's a high chance you make little to no money if your company ever gets acquired.Imagine spending years building a c...
07/07/2026

There's a high chance you make little to no money if your company ever gets acquired.

Imagine spending years building a company.
- Raised money.
- Built the team.
- Survived bad months.
- Took a lower salary than you could have.
- Watched friends buy houses while your net worth sat inside one private company.

Then finally, the company gets acquired.
Everyone congratulates you. Entracker, Inc42, Yourstory cover the story.
"You deserve it."

It feels good for a while. You're finally standing outside that dark tunnel, and there's plenty of light.

UNTIL someone opens the cap table and shows you the actual waterfall.
That's when the house of cards starts falling.

If investors put in ₹100 crore with a 1x liquidation preference, that ₹100 crore usually comes back to them first.
With multiple rounds and participation rights, what's left can look very different from the headline number.

You may own 20% of the company.
But end up getting a fraction of even that.

Sometimes what you get isn't even cash, it's shares of the acquiring company.
If they're listed, you may still have lock-ins and market risk.
If they're private, you've gone from owning shares in one private company to another.

Technically, you got acquired.
Practically, you may still have no money in the bank.

This is why founders need to stop looking only at valuation when they raise money.
Valuation is the headline. Terms decide the outcome.

Before signing a round, ask one uncomfortable question:
"If we sell for 0.5x, 1x or 2x this valuation, what do I actually take home?"

Ask your lawyer to run the exit waterfall.
Understand the liquidation preference, participating or non.
Understand what happens if the buyer pays in stock, and what happens to ESOP holders.

If the company is doing well, don't wait for an acquisition to be the first time anyone discusses liquidity. Plan secondaries when there's real demand.

For founders. For employees. For early investors who've been waiting for years.

Because the worst time to understand your cap table is after an acquisition offer arrives. By then the deal is moving, and you're too deep to walk away.

1000+ people. Multiple sessions. One topic the Indian startup ecosystem still gets badly wrong.Over the last few months,...
06/07/2026

1000+ people. Multiple sessions. One topic the Indian startup ecosystem still gets badly wrong.

Over the last few months, we've done ESOP education sessions with Mesa School of Business, PayU Infinity, Titan Capital, IndoSales, build3 and more.

Founders, employees, investors, and operators. All sitting through the same conversation: how equity actually works, what most teams miss when structuring it, and why the gap between "we have an ESOP plan" and "our team actually built wealth from it" exists in the first place.

The next one is with Antler in July and a whole roster of sessions being planned post that.

Here's the BIG update!

Going forward, we're expanding what we cover.

Startup fundraising, equity compliance, cap table structuring, and most importantly, secondaries.

The full picture of how equity moves from incorporation to the day value reaches the people who built the company.

This is an initiative by incentiv to educate founders, employees, and investors on the mechanics of private market wealth at a scale not done before.

If you lead a community, run a fund, or work closely with founders and think your network would benefit from a session like this, reach out.

We're looking to do more of these and keep doing them well.

We are building Incentiv not just as a marketplace to provide liquidity to ESOP holders or create opportunities for high...
13/11/2023

We are building Incentiv not just as a marketplace to provide liquidity to ESOP holders or create opportunities for high-ticket investors alone, but as a platform that solves the problem of illiquidity for the entire private equity ecosystem.

The solutions we are building, once built, will transform the way shareholders, founders, and investors look at private equity.

What was once an extremely illiquid asset will soon not be just transferable but done so seamlessly you'll wonder why it wasn't that way before.

To be a part of this transformation and ride the wave with us, head over to https://incentiv.finance and sign up today.



At Incentiv, we are obsessed with creating products and solutions that make everything from issuing stock options to cre...
24/10/2023

At Incentiv, we are obsessed with creating products and solutions that make everything from issuing stock options to creating liquidity events easy.

And by doing this, we are creating a butterfly effect that will change the way everyone perceives stock options and startup equity.

If you are a startup founder looking to offer ESOPs to your employees, incentiv has created a platform that will help you do that in less than half the time, with almost no effort, while staying fully compliant.

Click here to learn more 👉 https://incentiv.finance



Many employees get excited when they get stock options.But very few realize that they have to wait up to 4 years (in mos...
23/10/2023

Many employees get excited when they get stock options.

But very few realize that they have to wait up to 4 years (in most cases) to have them completely vested.

Stock options being vested, basically means that they can be exercised by paying the strike price and be converted to common shares of the company.

Yes, you do pay money to become a shareholder after waiting for 4 years and some prerequisite tax upfront while exercising the stock options.

But why would you do that?

Because, if you're working in a startup that is doing well or on the trajectory to do well, the time you spent waiting for the options to vest and the money you spent to exercise and pay taxes is insignificant...

Compared to the wealth you will create.

A few years could generate enough wealth to make decades' worth of salary money.

Ready to unlock the wealth stuck in the form of stock options?
Register on Incentiv today and let us help you liquidate it 👉 https://lnkd.in/gQP3sz4u



We have been spending the last few months building tools that make liquidity of ESOPs and equity not only possible but e...
21/10/2023

We have been spending the last few months building tools that make liquidity of ESOPs and equity not only possible but easy.

And one of the most requested tools has been our Perquisite Tax calculator which basically tells you the amount of tax you will have to pay if you decide to exercise your stock options today.

If you hold stock options, then there will come a day when you exercise them and pay tax out of your pocket upfront.

So, make sure you use the calculator today so that you're prepared when that time comes.

Check out our calculator here: https://lnkd.in/gzN3e-kP
Got questions and want to talk to our team?
Email us at [email protected]



Stock Options aren't crutches to reduce your operating expenses, but a tool to change the way your employees view your c...
20/10/2023

Stock Options aren't crutches to reduce your operating expenses, but a tool to change the way your employees view your company.

And for founders considering whether they should offer ESOPs to their team or not, ask yourself these questions by stepping into an employee's shoes.

Would you go the extra mile and give it your all if your future wealth was directly pegged to the value of the company?

Would you treat your work differently if you felt like you were a part owner of the company too?

Would you want to stay with the company for the long journey ahead and not just until the next appraisal cycle if it meant you could own significant equity?

If you ask me, my answer would be "yes" to that. And odds are, so would it be for your employees too.

Have you offered stock options to your employees yet? Need help with it?

At incentiv we're creating solutions to make everything from issuing ESOPs to creating liquidity events easy.

Get in touch with the team at [email protected]



What's the point of owning startup equity if you can't exit them?This is the exact question we ask ourselves every day, ...
19/10/2023

What's the point of owning startup equity if you can't exit them?

This is the exact question we ask ourselves every day, and through our Secondary Market, we aim to solve this problem for founders, investors, employees, and stakeholders.

If you are a founder of a growth/late-stage company or a shareholder/employee in one, check out how Incentiv can help you unlock the value of your equity.

Learn more: https://incentiv.finance



Over the past year, we have built a platform and products to make ESOP buyback not a rare event but a predictably consis...
18/10/2023

Over the past year, we have built a platform and products to make ESOP buyback not a rare event but a predictably consistent one.

If you are a founder, HR head, or key decision maker who wants to provide liquidity for your stock option holders, you don't need to rely on your existing investors to create it or dig into your cash reserves.

You can leverage our liquidity management platform to create liquidity events and find marquee investors from across the globe investing in these deals.

It's free for you (the company) and life-changing for every stakeholder who gets to see liquidity.

Want to learn how we can help?
Comment below or reach out to us at [email protected]

And while you're at it, check out the private equity marketplace that will help you do this 👉 https://incentiv.finance



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