Details below for OCV internal use only
Founders will be employed by an EOR provider and receive an indicative offer letter. Founders will receive an official offer letter through EOR provider once the company has been formed (see Company Formation), in the weeks following receipt of their indicative offer letter.
Also see Global Workforce Considerations for non-US based founders.
Basic offer letter fields
- Founder name
- Company legal name
- Country of employment
- EOR provider (as formal employer)
- Position - CTO, Founding Engineer, etc.
- Start date
- Home office location
Compensation
Founder offer letters will need to include the following information:
- Base salary amount in local currency (use proper 3-letter currency label before amount)
- Payment schedule (monthly in arrears)
If the Company is purchasing any existing domain names from the founder, include:
“The Company will purchase the existing domain names related to [Open Source Project Name] for USD $1. These domain names will be transferred back to you in the event of a company wind down.”
The purchase of domains by the Company will be reflected as part of the Founder Common Stock Purchase Agreement (Exhibit B - Assignment Agreement).
Equity
See Step 4: Issue equity to founders and advisors for OCV’s guidelines on founder equity.
Intellectual Property
OCV offer letters will include a standard Employee Confidential Information and Inventions Assignment Agreement, which complies with the employee confidentiality and intellectual property rules established at the federal level by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prior intellectual property is typically something where the founder has existing IP protections such as a patent or trademark, this disclosure does not usually apply to the open source software a company.
In addition, OCV offer letters will also include a non-solicitation clause in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest.