Essential Private Company Equity Comp Topics for 2025

In 2025, Private Company Equity Compensation topics continued to capture strong reader interest across The Cap newsletter. Several blogs rose to the top, reflecting exceptional engagement from NASPP’s private company audience. Our leading private company blogs of the year, including pieces focused on key trends in plan design and compliance, achieved some of the highest click-through rates in the publication. The selections below highlight what resonated most with readers navigating today’s evolving private markets equity compensation landscape.

We have rounded up ten standout NASPP blogs that together cover the full life cycle of private company equity, from cap tables and grant sizing to early exercises, Section 83(b) elections, and what happens when employees leave.

Vested Equity & Employee Exits at Private Companies

If you have ever had a departing employee ask, “What happens to my vested shares?” this blog is your playbook. It explains four common approaches to vested equity at termination: never repurchase, repurchase at fair market value, repurchase at a discount, and case-by-case discretion. The blog also outlines the tradeoffs of each approach for culture, retention, and cap table health.

You will also find guidance on handling vested but unexercised options and post-termination exercise windows, which are a frequent challenge for many scaling startups.

Best for: Stock plan professionals supporting founders, HR, finance, and boards in evaluating repurchase provisions and free-rider risk.

How to Handle ISO Valuation and the $100K Limit

Incentive stock options (ISOs) remain popular in pre-IPO environments, but the $100,000 annual limit on exercisable ISOs can create administrative and tax classification challenges. This blog explains the limit in plain language and walks through an example of splitting a single ISO grant into ISO and NQSO portions. This ensures that only $100,000 of grant date fair market value becomes exercisable as ISOs in any year.

The blog also highlights the added complexity when multiple ISO grants become exercisable in the same year and why this can confuse participants if it is not communicated clearly.

Best for: Stock plan administrators and finance teams managing ISO programs.

Cap Tables 101 for Founders

This is the cap table primer every first-time founder should bookmark. The blog explains what a cap table is, what it tracks (shareholders, security classes, option pool, vesting, exercises), and why it becomes increasingly important and complex as a company adds investors and employees.

It also describes how cap tables evolve across stages. They progress from simple founder splits to formal incorporation, to heavy option use in cash-lean years, and finally to institutional funding rounds where investors scrutinize ownership, dilution, and control.

Best for: Early-stage founders and operators looking to deepen their understanding of cap table mechanics.

Who Should Own the Cap Table?

Once your cap table evolves from a static spreadsheet into a living governance tool, a key question emerges: Who owns it? This blog explains how legal, HR, and finance teams rely on cap table data and why a single point of accountability is critical for accuracy, efficiency, and trust with investors and employees.

The blog also discusses how responsibilities shift over time, beginning with founder-led management and eventually moving to a dedicated stock plan administrator as equity plan volume grows or an IPO approaches.

Best for: Legal, HR, and finance leaders at companies navigating early seed through pre-IPO stages and determining where cap table ownership should sit.

A Private Company's Guide to Equity Compensation Market Data

You cannot size equity grants effectively without market data. This guide maps out the key data sources private companies rely on and explains what each offers, which stages they best fit, and their pros and cons.

The blog also highlights why benchmarking is critical. Without it, companies risk under-granting and losing talent, over-granting and raising investor concerns, or misaligning with candidate expectations for their stage and sector.

Best for: HR, compensation leaders, and stock plan professionals supporting founders preparing for funding rounds or equity plan updates.

How Much is Enough? Sizing Equity Awards in Private Companies

If your leadership team often asks, “Is this grant too big or too small?” this blog provides a clear framework. It explains why equity guidelines matter, how public and private practices differ, and the most common approaches to grant sizing: ownership percentage, dollar value, and share count methods. The blog also explores burn rate considerations and long-term pool management.

Readers will also find advice on adapting grant practices by company stage and communicating grant sizes clearly to employees.

Best for: Compensation leaders and stock plan professionals building or revisiting an equity grant guideline matrix.

Why Start-ups Grant Stock Options:

While public companies have shifted heavily toward RSUs, private companies still favor stock options. This blog explores how stock options provide leverage in high growth environments, how they compare with RSUs in terms of risk and upside, and how growth assumptions influence which vehicle may create more value for employees.

Simple numerical examples illustrate how various levels of stock price growth change the relative value of options and RSUs. These examples also help companies communicate equity vehicle choices to candidates and employees.

Best for: Stock plan professionals at startups choosing between options and RSUs or crafting a clear equity narrative for talent and investors.

Six Ways Equity Plan Accounting Differs for Private Companies

This blog examines ASC 718 from a private company perspective. Although the standard applies broadly, private companies face unique challenges around fair value determination, expected volatility, term assumptions, and other inputs because they lack trading history.

The blog covers practical expedients for expected term, how companies select peer-volatility data, and other nuances that materially affect valuation and expense recognition.

Best for: Finance leaders, controllers, and auditors supporting private company equity plans.

Stock Option Early Exercises: Accounting Considerations

Early exercise features can significantly change employees’ tax outcomes, and they create accounting complexity for companies. This blog focuses on the accounting requirements. These include tracking the liability for cash received on unvested shares that are subject to repurchase, continuing to recognize compensation expense over the vesting period, and handling repurchases and forfeitures.

The blog also explains what happens if a company chooses not to repurchase unvested, early exercised shares at termination. This decision may trigger a modification that requires immediate expense recognition.

Best for: Finance leaders and stock plan professionals at companies adding an early exercise feature to their plans or preparing for pre-IPO accounting.

Online Filing Now Available for Section 83(b) Elections

Section 83(b) elections are essential for holders of early exercised options or restricted stock, but the filing process has historically been cumbersome. This 2025 update introduces the IRS’s new Form 15620, which standardizes 83(b) elections and now enables online, including mobile filing.

The blog explains when 83(b) elections apply, outlines the basics of the new form, and clarifies key differences from the traditional mailed letter. It also explains whether taxpayers must use the form and whether online filing is required, which it is not.

Best for: Stock plan professionals at private companies with early exercise or restricted stock programs and teams updating 83(b) guidance for employees.

Final Insights: Top Private Company Equity Compensation Topics of 2025

These ten blogs highlight the issues private companies are most focused on in 2025. Topics range from foundational cap table decisions to complex accounting, tax elections, and equity plan design. As organizations grow, equity compensation remains a powerful tool for talent attraction and retention, and it also remains one of the most demanding programs to manage.

We hope this collection provides HR, finance, legal, and stock plan professionals at private companies with practical guidance to bring clarity and confidence to their equity plan programs.

A special thank you to the NASPP Private Company Editorial Committee for their invaluable support and contributions. Their expertise ensures content is relevant, practical, and tailored to the unique needs of private company professionals navigating equity compensation. Look to The Cap for continued insights throughout the year.

As we prepare to embark on 2026, we invite you to keep sharing, learning, and growing together.