Same Vision, New Brand

At Equitybee, we know that startups strive to create value that doesn’t yet exist: products and services that propel economic growth, improve our collective quality of life, and support our communities. 

As startup founders and employees ourselves, we also know how challenging this work can be. Founders take a risk when they choose to launch a new enterprise, and you, the employees, take a risk when you decide to participate in these great undertakings. You do that because, as big-picture thinkers, you can already envision the potential rewards of bringing the next big startup to life. 

However, these rewards don’t always come to fruition, and even if they do – they take time. That’s why employee stock options are meant to serve as an incentive for shouldering this work, taking these risks, and showing up day in and day out. For those of you who have been there, who believed in a company when it was still in its infancy – your options can provide a life-changing opportunity.

Over the last four years, we’ve worked with thousands of startup employees and seen the drastic impact your options can have on your future and long-term financial stability. However, we’ve also seen many employees who couldn’t afford to exercise their options, much less navigate the exhaustingly confusing steps involved in the process. 

The reality is that as long as startups have been around, the employee stock options system has been broken. We’re here to fix it.

How We Got Here 

Since our inception, we’ve believed that you, as startup employees, have earned your options with your hard work and deserve to keep your shares. We also believe that the process of exercising your options should be transparent and straightforward, regardless of your background or financial situation. In a nutshell, we believe that equity needs to be equitable; this is our vision of the future, and what we actively work towards every day. 

Since 2018, we’ve worked to reimagine the employee stock options system. While we started out by focusing on removing friction from the process of exercising your options, this is just the beginning. The next step is becoming a leading consumer fintech brand that addresses all startup employees’ equity needs. 

As is often the case with periods of significant growth, we emerged with a sense of pride in our efforts, as well as an understanding that we needed to mature our branding, so it aligns with our narrative, our mission, and our evolution. Today, we’re excited to reveal Equitybee’s new brand. 

Open Options for All 

As a part of our rebrand, we reexamined everything to ensure that Equitybee is synonymous with opening up options for all startup employees. 

Starting today, our new tagline is Open Options for All. This aptly summarizes our vision for the employee stock options system. Open Options is about taking control of what’s rightfully yours and putting your financial future in your hands. 

Our name began as EquityBee, reflecting the importance of building an equitable equity system and highlighting the fact that you, the startup employees, work as hard as bees to build companies. It also suggested that we would work with the relentlessness of a bee to help you make the most of your options. 

As we have evolved, though, we’ve come to realize that the community of startup employees we help is an extension of our work and our brand. With this in mind, we’ve changed our name to Equitybee. Now, it more closely resembles a first name, which aligns with our company’s employee-centered and eye-level values. This change also allowed us to keep the name that our users are familiar with while eliminating our initial emphasis on the bee. 

Our updated messaging emphasizes our efforts to promote the fairness, simplicity, and transparency surrounding employee stock options. From our blog posts to our social media accounts to our website, we work to consistently provide trustworthy and reliable information to startup employees across all sectors. 

Our new visual designs portray stock options floating around the screen and around our redesigned characters. This movement reflects the reality that the efforts to fix the broken stock options system are bigger than Equitybee, and that all options should be just as open and within reach as these designs. Our logo underwent subtle changes as well, allowing us to maintain brand familiarity while ensuring it stands out and is easily recognizable.

Looking Forward 

While you will notice the above changes, we will continue to offer you the same end-to-end solution: the funding you need to exercise your options. Our investor network will compete to cover your exercise costs (including tax), so you don’t have to pay a dime out of pocket.

More than ever, we are committed to building a future where you do not have to risk it all just to access the compensation you’ve rightfully earned. This is a future where your options are open, fair, and fully transparent. We look forward to supporting you every step of the way by unlocking the value of your hard work and empowering you to participate in the success of the company you helped build.

We encourage you to visit our homepage to experience our new brand in its entirety. We’re excited to share this with you.