What is a 409A Valuation?
A 409A valuation establishes the Fair Market Value of your company's common stock and is commonly undertaken before issuing stock options to employees.
When you need a 409A valuation
You need a 409A valuation:
Before issuing your first stock options to employees
After raising a round of capital
Once every 12 months (or after a material event like a capital raise)
When approaching an IPO, merger, or acquisition
How to get a 409A valuation with Cake
Cake makes it simple to get compliant 409A valuations:
Navigate to Equity compliance from your main menu
Select 409A from the dropdown
Click Request to start
Complete the required information (allow about 20 minutes)
Receive your draft 409A within 3 business days
You can also upload an existing 409A valuation by clicking 'Upload existing' in the top right corner of the 409A section.
Adding valuations to your offers
Once complete, you can easily add your 409A valuation to your stock option offers directly within Cake.
Learn more about 409A valuations
For a comprehensive guide to understanding 409A valuations, including when you need them and how they work: