Vesting Schedule Architect
Design token vesting schedules balancing incentives, compliance, and liquidity
What You Can Do
You can design differentiated vesting schedules for multiple stakeholder groups that balance competing interests—founders seeking liquidity, investors requiring security, employees wanting clarity, and regulators demanding compliance intent. The skill models vesting impacts on token price, circulating supply, and dilution curves, then optimizes schedules to match your project stage, investor expectations, and operational constraints. You'll produce legally defensible, mathematically rigorous vesting specifications ready for term sheets and governance documentation.
Features
create differentiated schedules for founders, employees, investors, and community with competing incentive alignment
architect complex release patterns including cliff periods, linear vesting, exponential schedules, and conditional triggers
model dilution curves and token availability over time to predict price pressure and liquidity impacts
structure vesting to demonstrate securities compliance intent and address jurisdiction-specific requirements
generate vesting specifications aligned with investor expectations and standard VC practices
analyze and compare vesting structures across similar projects to validate your design against industry standards
balance opposing interests (liquidity vs. security vs. incentive alignment) with transparent trade-off documentation
create employee option pools and grant structures with appropriate cliff periods and vesting durations
Example Output
Example 1: Founder Vesting Schedule
- 4-year linear vesting with 12-month cliff
- 25% unlocks at month 12, remaining 75% over 36 months
- Circulating supply impact: 2% monthly dilution after cliff
- Compliance note: Demonstrates long-term commitment for securities purposes
Example 2: Employee Option Pool
- 4-year total vesting period with 1-year cliff
- 25% grants vest at cliff, remainder vests monthly
- Recommended pool size: 15-20% of total token supply
- Suggested grant sizes by role: Engineering (0.5-2%), Operations (0.1-0.5%)
Example 3: Investor Vesting Analysis
- Series A: 6-month cliff, 36-month vesting (protecting early capital)
- Series B: 3-month cliff, 24-month vesting (shorter for later-stage credibility)
- Total investor allocation: 25% with staggered release timing
- Circulating supply at launch: 15% (reducing FDV dilution shock)
What's Included
- SKILL.md: complete vesting architecture framework with use cases and methodology
- Multi-Stakeholder Vesting Template: pre-built schedules for founders, employees, investors, and community with customizable parameters
- Dilution Curve Modeling Worksheet: spreadsheet-ready formulas for forecasting circulating supply, token unlock schedules, and price impact scenarios
- Regulatory Compliance Checklist: mapping vesting structures to securities requirements and documentation standards
- Competitor Benchmarking Framework: structured analysis template for comparing vesting approaches across similar projects
Who It's For
- Tokenomics Designers & Token Economists — architecting vesting structures as core tokenomics infrastructure for launches and restructures
- Founders & Project Leads — designing fair vesting splits between co-founders and managing stakeholder alignment during fundraising
- Investors & Token Fund Managers — evaluating vesting terms in due diligence and structuring investor protections in term sheets
- HR & People Operations — creating employee grant and option pool programs with appropriate incentive alignment and vesting mechanics
- Blockchain Business Development — benchmarking competitor vesting and advising partners on industry-standard practices
Best For
- Designing initial vesting schedules for token launches and TGE planning
- Modeling circulating supply impacts and dilution curves over time
- Restructuring vesting for existing tokens during governance updates or pivots
- Creating differentiated schedules for founders, employees, investors, and community
- Preparing investor term sheets and regulatory documentation with vesting specifications
- Analyzing stakeholder conflicts and optimizing competing incentive interests
- Benchmarking vesting structures against competitors for market alignment
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