A vesting schedule is the timeline over which a founder, employee, or advisor earns full ownership of their equity grant, instead of receiving it all at once.
The standard structure runs four years with a one-year cliff. Nothing vests until the twelve-month mark, at which point 25% vests all at once, and the remaining 75% vests monthly or quarterly over the next three years. Leave before the cliff and the whole grant is forfeited; leave partway through year two and only the vested portion is kept.
Vesting protects the company and its other shareholders from someone walking away early with a full ownership stake they didn't stay to earn. Founders sometimes put themselves on the same schedule as early hires, partly as a fairness signal to a co-founder and partly because investors will often ask for it before a priced round anyway.
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