# Vested

> Vested is a Miami-based fintech that helps startup employees turn their stock options into real value without paying out of pocket. It funds the cost of exercising options - the strike price, estimated taxes and fees - in exchange for a slice of the shares if and when a liquidity event happens. Alongside the capital, Vested offers free tools: an equity dashboard, the 'Vestimate' valuation estimate, outcome simulators and an Equity 101 education library, so option-holders can understand, track and act on equity that would otherwise expire unused.

- **Headquarters:** Miami, Florida, United States
- **Founders:** Dave Thornton (Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Investment Officer), Jason Sullivan (Co-Founder), Matt Venables (Co-Founder), Michael Delgado (Co-Founder), Tom Hennessey (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~46-69 employees
- **Products:** Option Exercise Funding, Equity Dashboard, Vestimate, Share Liquidity Solutions, Equity 101 Education
- **Notable:** Helped startup employees exercise $200M+ in stock options, Served 40,000+ startup employees, Supports option-holders from 10,000+ companies

## Products & services

- **Option Exercise Funding** — Cash to cover the strike price, estimated taxes and fees of exercising vested stock options, with no out-of-pocket cost, in exchange for a portion of the exercised shares at a future liquidity event.
- **Equity Dashboard** — A tool to track and monitor the value and growth of startup equity holdings, with alerts on key trends.
- **Vestimate** — Vested's data-driven estimate of what a person's startup equity is worth and how that value has changed over time, with benchmarking against similar companies.
- **Share Liquidity Solutions** — Guided support for exploring liquidity pathways for already-exercised options, RSUs, or other owned private equity.
- **Equity 101 Education** — Free educational library and calculators explaining vesting, exercising, taxes and selling startup stock options.

## Achievements

- Helped startup employees exercise $200M+ in stock options
- Served 40,000+ startup employees
- Supports option-holders from 10,000+ companies
- Raised roughly $4.77M in total funding
- Pioneered a prepaid-forward-contract structure that funds exercises without triggering 409A revaluation

## Latest updates

- **2021-10** — Closed seed funding, bringing total raised to roughly $4.77M.
- **2022-10** — Co-founder Dave Thornton appeared on The Meb Faber Show to discuss bringing index investing to venture capital and unlocking startup employee equity.

## Links

- Website: https://vested.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vested-inc
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/vestedco

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vested
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-02