For founder stock and liquidity events
Financial planning for startup founders before liquidity becomes real.
Founder wealth usually starts as paper value. A good advisor helps you plan the first liquidity, the remaining concentration, the family balance sheet, and the post-exit investment policy before a tender, acquisition, or IPO forces the issue.
Founder planning is not ordinary equity comp
Useful starting points
Founder Stock Planning
How to map ownership, vesting, transfer limits, liquidity windows, and family goals.
Secondary Sale Planning
How to decide whether to sell, how much to sell, and what the proceeds must accomplish.
Founder Liquidity Checklist
The planning items to settle before a tender, acquisition, IPO, or founder share sale.
83(b) Election Guide
The 30-day IRS filing that locks in capital-gain treatment on restricted founder stock and starts the QSBS clock.
QSBS Planning
How Section 1202 can eliminate federal tax on up to $15M of founder exit proceeds — and what disqualifies stock founders assume is covered.
Liquidity After-Tax Calculator
Model your net proceeds from a secondary or tender offer. Applies 2026 LTCG brackets, NIIT, QSBS exclusion, and California non-conformity.
Post-Exit Wealth Management
Tax timing, estimated payments, investment policy, remaining concentration, and estate planning in the year after an acquisition, IPO, or secondary sale.
Tender Offer Planning
How to decide how much to sell, model after-tax proceeds, navigate QSBS and California non-conformity, and plan before the 20-day window opens.
Acquisition Exit Planning
Deal structures, the cap table waterfall, QSBS in all-cash vs. stock deals, earnout tax treatment, rollover equity, and the pre-close planning window.
IPO Planning
The pre-S-1 window, lockup period mechanics, 10b5-1 plan setup, Rule 144 affiliate selling restrictions, and tax strategy at lockup expiration.
Pre-Liquidity Estate Planning
How to transfer founder stock appreciation out of your taxable estate before the exit using 409A-price gifting, GRATs, irrevocable trusts, and QSBS stacking.
409A Valuation for Founders
How the 409A common-stock appraisal anchors your gifting strategy, GRAT mechanics, ISO exercise decisions, and the estate planning window that closes once a deal is in motion.
ISO Exercise Strategy
When to exercise incentive stock options: the AMT exposure table, 2026 OBBBA exemption changes, early exercise to minimize AMT, California ordinary income trap, and the QSBS connection.
Pre-Exit State Residency Change
California's 13.3% rate on capital gains can cost a founder millions at exit. How the FTB's nine-factor domicile test works, the income-sourcing rules for founder stock, and the steps to establish nonresident status before the exit year begins.
Get matched with a startup founder advisor
Best fit is usually founders with $1M+ estimated equity value or a potential liquidity event in the next 12 months.
Startup Founder Advisor Match is a matching service. We connect founders with advisors who understand liquidity, concentration, and post-exit planning.