In it together – why productboard offers employee stock options

What makes a company successful? You could argue that it’s an outstanding product or service, a clever brand, or catchy advertising – and you’d be right. But the driving force behind all these things is people. Hard-working, talented people. 

This is why we offer all full-time productboard employees the chance to own a slice of that success through employee stock options.

Employee what options?

As the name suggests, this benefit gives our employees the option to buy shares of productboard stock, for a predetermined price, at a predetermined period in the future. Generally, employees have to wait a year before vesting begins.

The beauty of stock options is the predetermined price, known as the strike price. This doesn’t change, no matter how much productboard grows. In the time it takes for our employees’ stock options to finish vesting, the fair market value of those shares could rocket. 

This gives everyone at productboard the chance to own a piece of the company. They then have the option of holding their shares and enjoying future gains, or cashing in and earning a profit.

Sharing success across the company

Unlike other benefits, such as a gym membership or free language lessons, the tangible benefits of stock options may not be clear at first. In fact, the average employee may switch off the moment they hear vesting period, or simply not understand the concept at all. But make no mistake: stock options are one of the most interesting and aspirational benefits available. Here’s why. 

Democratizing success

Employees are asked to do everything they can to make their employer successful. They push themselves to go that extra mile. But often, they feel disconnected from the success that their hard work generates. 

Sure, working hard means job security and better pay are more likely. But, traditionally, the real beneficiaries of employee-led success are business owners and investors. 

With stock options, we ensure that those people who stick around and contribute to the success of our company get a chance to own a slice of it. This democratizes the fruits of hard work and helps to align motivations, ensuring that we are all pulling in the same direction.

Increased loyalty

Like any company, we want our people to stick around and help us achieve sustained success. But in today’s world of frequent job-hopping and gig work, we understand that this isn’t a given. Stock options are an excellent way to incentivize loyalty.   

Our stock option plans start to vest after a one-year cliff, with employees entitled to buy incrementally more shares over the next three years. The delayed gratification of these plans encourages people to stick around and contribute to our success.

This is a win-win. For our employees, it’s a chance to make a real difference over a prolonged period of time – and to benefit financially from doing so. From a company perspective, it helps us build a solid team and culture, with a sense of togetherness and community at its heart.

An investment in the future

At productboard, we understand that success is a team sport. We recognize the contribution our people make, and we want to reward them accordingly.

We see stock options as integral to our continued growth, representing not only an investment in the future of our people, but a rare opportunity for them to claim a stake in a company that’s changing the world of product management. 

We’re on the move like never before. Boosted by our recent $45 Series B funding round, we’re scaling at a rapid pace and expanding the team across our international offices. Still, we understand that this is a communal effort, and that everyone single one of us contributes to our success. Come join us and you’ll see that we are all in this together! 

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Want to join us on this epic journey? We’re hiring across the board. Check out our careers page and see what we’ve got to offer.