ScaleUp Winter/Spring 2026 - Week 7: Startup Equity Incentives

You’re invited to Morrison Foerster’s ScaleUp Speaker Series—a complimentary series that will provide insights into the legal side of founding a startup. This weekly seminar will arm you with the knowledge needed to manage the legal aspects of launching, funding, and growing a startup, and ways to avoid common mistakes that can have serious consequences down the road.

We are hosting this cycle of the ScaleUp Speaker Series on Fridays as virtual-only events, including several bonus sessions on Thursdays.*

Topics covered in this one-hour session include:

• Founder restricted stock and stock options
• Vesting and repurchase rights (including 83(b) elections and early exercise)
• Stock incentive plans
• Incentive stock options (ISOs) and nonqualified stock options (NSOs)
• Administration of stock option plans and valuation

For an overview of the topic, kindly view this brief video.

To register for upcoming events in this series, see our full schedule below.

To attend a session, please register by clicking its title (in orange text) below. You must register for each session individually.

Week 8: Follow-On Venture Financing Complexities – March 6, 2026

Learn how startups and investors manage down rounds, recapitalizations, pay-to-play financings, and other complexities that arise only in the second and subsequent rounds of financing.

Register

Week 9: Selling Your Startup – March 13, 2026

Learn the differences among acquisition structures, and master fundamental terms for mergers and acquisitions, and receive an overview of definitive M&A agreements and processes.

Register

Week 10: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) – March 20, 2026

Learn about the steps necessary when considering an IPO, including the process and timing, and continuation as a U.S. public company.

Register

Week 11: Raising Capital from Foreign Investors: CFIUS Basics – March 26, 2026

Learn about the underlying regulatory framework of foreign investments in U.S. startups, how founders should think about approaching foreign investors for investments, and how U.S. investors will likely view startups with foreign investments. 

Register

Week 12: Open Forum Recap – March 27, 2026

Join our interactive, open forum where you can ask our experienced startup attorneys questions on topics raised during earlier sessions or startup legal questions generally.

Register

 For more information on our ScaleUp programming offered in Austin, Boston, New York, and Palo Alto, please visit us at MoFo ScaleUp.

*Week 11: Raising Capital from Foreign Investors: CFIUS Basics is a bonus session and will be held on Thursday.