Announcing the Equity Inclusion Initiative

Supporting the growth of minority-owned and women-owned businesses via the implementation and successful management of equity programs

What Exactly Are We Offering?

Successful applicants will receive, free of charge for a full year-and-a-half:

  • Use of the OptionTrax® equity management administration platform, which provides full equity plan and cap table management functionality with integrated financial reporting, tax calculations and growth modeling.
  • Use of the OptionTrax® employee portal, with which companies will be able to engage and communicate with their employees about their equity in order to further drive commitment and performance.
  • An equity plan best practice consultation to make sure companies are starting off on the right foot, or making the most out of their existing equity.

The OptionTrax Equity Inclusion Initiative aims to remove the hurdles of reporting and management to help underserved businesses reap the benefits of successful equity programs.

Though women make up 49% of managerial employees nationally, our  2019-2020 OptionTrax Equity Study of Private And Public Companies found that they received just 17% of all equity awards.

How Equity Drives Business Growth

In short, equity awards attract and impassion employees without any up-front cash required from the employer.  For private companies, cap table management is critical to understand ownership structures and protect founders and employees.

Here’s a bit more on how they can ignite growth:

Align employee goals with company and shareholder goals and get everyone on the same page

  • Awards can be created specifically for each team member and tied directly to their individual performance or overall company performance
  • Bonuses for outstanding work can be created now to be cashed-in later

Generate greater potential wealth for team members

  • Equity awards build employee wealth through stock price appreciation
  • By sharing ownership, employees gain exposure to capital markets
Women-owned businesses received just 2.8% of the total available VC funding in 2019, and black-owned businesses received less than 1%.  Only 8.7% of VC funding went to businesses with mixed-gender founders.
To review the criteria and complete the application

Create incentives for employees to stick around and keep contributing

  • Employees with ownership report greater satisfaction at work and greater loyalty to the company
  • Reducing expensive employee churn is a huge time and money-saver
  • Multi-year vesting increases employee commitment and a long-term view

Reserve corporate cash

  • Existing cash can go elsewhere – to research and development, getting the word out, getting a larger space or buying new equipment
  • Equity awards attract talent even when you can’t afford market salaries

Track and manage private company dilution

  • Maintain a complete picture of total company ownership
  • Plan ahead with equity plan pool reserves
  • Understand the long-term impact of investments with dilution models

Why OptionTrax® is ideally suited to help companies leverage their equity for growth

It’s clear that equity award programs help to drive growth, but they also come with complicated tax, accounting and disclosure requirements.  We believe that companies shouldn’t miss out on the benefits of well-managed equity programs due to a lack of access to the tools that make it easy to comply with these requirements. With the persistent and growing economic wealth gap, it can be overwhelming for companies to find a place to lean in and help.  We’re in a unique position to put core skills and technology to use to help women-owned and black-owned businesses.  This is why we created the OptionTrax Equity Inclusion Initiative.

In our experience, both shiny new startups and mature companies have greater access to funding, technology and advice than growth-stage firms. We’ve been focusing on growth-stage companies for a very long time.  We believe  we can provide an important leg up to these companies with our software and service.

With 28 years in this space and Certified Equity Professionals that have helped our clients through thousands of corporate actions, we’re also uniquely suited to provide effective advice in an efficient consultation.

To review the criteria and complete the application