
Ask HN: Grant family stock? - rajacombinator
I&#x27;ve read a few successful startup founders say they wish they had granted their family some stock in the startup when they were just getting started. This seems to make sense for tax reasons. (Does it?)<p>How would you go about putting this on paper? I&#x27;m thinking a YC SAFE with a nominal cap sufficient to achieve the desired grant would be a pretty simple way to do it. Any other simple methods that wouldn&#x27;t require paying a lawyer?<p>Edit: on second thought, I&#x27;m thinking a YC SAFE may be counterproductive in this case, because it won&#x27;t provide for LT capital gains treatment in the (unlikely) event of an acquisition prior to conversion ...
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joshmlewis
I would lean toward the side of not worrying about it at the moment. If you
haven't raised money and/or you don't have paying customers, I'd focus on
building the product and gaining traction first. It would be easy enough to
figure out how to do this (if it's even a good idea) once you can pay a lawyer
to draft up the appropriate documents.

Also, in general, the more people you have on your cap table early on creates
more hassle as the company grows. Especially when it comes time to fundraise.
This could cause potentially bad situations that you probably wouldn't foresee
happening. Focus on building something successful and then it will be trivial
to figure out once you're there.

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rajacombinator
It's not a substantial worry that would distract from building a successful
product ...

However, after thinking about it some more and realizing the tax benefits are
murky at best, I agree it's probably not worth doing.

