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- Idea Of The Day - You Can Make The Tool That Finally Explains WTF Your Startup Equity Actually Means
Idea Of The Day - You Can Make The Tool That Finally Explains WTF Your Startup Equity Actually Means
Needs To Exist
July 08, 2025
In partnership with
GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea to finally demystify employee equity.
NTE Pro is now over 4k startup ideas that you can gain access to right now for only $99
NTE Zero to One turns your best idea into a real thing - fast, focused, no fluff.
We whipped up a this NTE tool to rescue your snooze-worthy titles. Try Titlebooster free and tell us what you think by replying to this email.
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Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Master Your Equity
Fake App Reviews
Finally Understand Your Startup Equity
Want to build this idea? Let gets started - signup for NTE Zero To One
The One Liner
Make sense of your equity before it makes a mess.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Most employees don’t understand their stock options. This platform turns equity confusion into clarity, education, modeling, and smarter decisions.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
Your employees say “I joined for the equity.”
But do they actually understand what they got?
Spoiler: They don’t.
Stock options, RSUs, vesting cliffs, exercise windows, QSBS, AMT, 83(b), tender offers, blackout periods…
It’s an alphabet soup of jargon, deadlines, and life-altering consequences.
Most people don’t know:
When to exercise.
If they can afford it.
What taxes they'll owe.
What liquidity even looks like.
And when it’s time to leave the company? Panic mode. 90-day window. No idea what to do. Some just let it expire.
Companies try to help. But HR sends out stale PDFs. The CFO doesn’t want to play financial advisor.
And Carta? Great for cap tables, bad for brains.
The Solution
What if employees actually understood and maximized their equity?
This tool bridges the gap between legal paperwork and financial clarity.
Here’s what it does:
Personalized Education
Plain English explanations of equity grants, taxes, and timelines.
Interactive walkthroughs at onboarding, refresher flows at key milestones.
Employee-specific modeling: “If I stay 2 more years and the company exits at $500M…”
Equity Copilot
Tracks vesting schedules, deadlines, and tax windows.
Sends nudges like: “Your 90-day exercise window is closing—here’s what it means.”
Auto-calculates AMT exposure, 83(b) benefits, and QSBS eligibility.
Liquidity Navigator
Helps employees prepare for tender offers, secondaries, or IPOs.
Surfaces real-time market signals and exit scenario planning.
Founder & HR View
Gives people ops and finance leaders an easy way to support their team.
One dashboard to send equity resources, answer FAQs, and boost retention.
This is how you go from “stock option anxiety” to “equity fluency.”
How We’d Build It
Starter MVP (Proof it matters):
Mid-Tier Product (Sticky SaaS):
Build native integrations with equity platforms like Carta, Pulley, and AngelList.
Add scenario modeling with tools like Notional or custom-built Monte Carlo engines.
Create “equity playbooks” by persona: engineers, execs, sales, early vs late joiners.
Add Slack integrations and lifecycle nudges (“3 years in, here’s what you need to know”).
Power Player Move (B2B2C Flywheel):
Offer white-label versions for VCs, accelerators, or financial advisors to support their portfolio talent.
Add liquidity marketplace integrations for tender offers, secondaries, or loans (e.g., Equitybee, Secfi).
Create a freemium model for individuals + paid employer tier for dashboards, usage analytics, and L&D integrations.
Why It Needs to Exist
Equity is often the most valuable part of a comp package and the least understood.
This tool gives employees actual clarity, not chaos.
It saves companies from repeated questions, missed deadlines, and frustrated talent.
And it helps everyone from interns to execs to turn ownership into actual upside.
No more guessing. No more ghosted option grants.
Just confidence, clarity, and better financial outcomes.
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Turns out, TitleBooster hit a nerve.
Some of you turned your flops into bangers. Others replied, “Wait… can I build something like this too?”
Yes. That’s the whole point.
I didn’t raise money. I just used the tools and kept it scrappy.
Most people stop at idea energy. We built NTE Zero to One to break through that wall.
It’s the cheat code I wish I had:
Scope your idea → get a real build plan → move.
No fluff. No “founder vibes.” Just progress. $49.
👉 Try TitleBooster — 100% free
👉 Build your own thing with NTE Zero to One
👉 Need inspo? 4,000+ startup ideas in NTE Pro
Make this your last half-built project.
App Store Reviews for That Equity App That Finally Makes Sense
We didn’t know whether to build a startup or a support group.
Turns out… both.
Here’s what the “users” are saying (a parody):
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Before this app, I thought a strike price was something UPS charged me.”
– Probably an engineer
⭐⭐⭐⭐
“It explained my RSUs so clearly, I cried. My CPA also cried.”
– Literally just forwarded this to my entire team
⭐⭐
“Great app, but now I know I’ve already lost $12k. Thanks???”
– Someone who exercised 3 years too late
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The AMT calculator told me not to exercise. I listened. I am now still poor, but wisely poor.”
– A realist with an options grant
⭐⭐⭐
“Helped me understand my cap table. Unfortunately, it also helped me realize I own 0.00002% of the company.”
– Employee #18 at a unicorn with no wings
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Finally… an app that talks to me like I’m a smart human, not a finance bro who reads SEC filings for fun.”
– Your friend who opens Investopedia daily but still doesn't get QSBS
⭐⭐
“It works, but it also made me schedule a very awkward follow-up with HR.”
– Just learned about their post-termination exercise window
💡 Why this matters:
Most people have no idea what they’ve actually been given when they get startup equity.
They sign the offer letter. They get a PDF. They nod. They wait.
Then they leave the company… and the real confusion begins.
This tool? It makes all of that make sense.
It’s part translator, part financial modeler, part life coach.
You’ll still probably cry, but at least you’ll know why.
Too weird for Shark Tank. Too smart to ignore.
Some ideas sound like satire.
Others sound like billion-dollar startups.
These sound like both.
Here are 5 of the weirdest ideas from inside NTE Pro:
🧪 GenomeShield
Prevent pollution-induced cancer with preemptive mRNA therapy.
Basically, a lung vaccine for dirty air.
🧸 AI Memory Line
A phone number where Grandma tells stories then AI turns them into preserved digital legacies.
📦 AI Renovation Postcards
Contractors send “before and after” images of your house… before you hire them.
🧠 Fantasy Handyman Camp
Weekend retreats where clueless millennials learn to fix toilets and patch drywall like it's summer camp.
🛒 LoopBank
A fintech that lets users trade stuff like clothes and books for credits that feel like money.
These aren’t jokes.
They’re live inside NTE Pro, with build notes, mockups, and launch plans.
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One More Meme
