Yes. Cake includes built-in 83(b) reminders for founders and early equity holders. The 83(b) election must be filed within 30 days of receiving restricted stock or early-exercised options. Missing this window is an expensive tax consequence that cannot be reversed. Cake flags the deadline automatically so it is not missed.
The 83(b) election is a tax filing that allows founders and early equity recipients to elect to be taxed on the current value of unvested equity rather than its value when it vests. For founders with near-zero-value stock at incorporation, this is almost always the right choice: you pay tax on a small amount now and avoid ordinary income tax on the full value as equity vests in future years.
The 30-day deadline runs from the date of grant or early exercise. It is a hard deadline with no extensions from the IRS. If you miss it, you cannot file retroactively. The consequence: as equity vests in future years, each vesting event is treated as taxable income at the fair market value on that date, not at the original grant price. For founders whose equity becomes valuable, this can produce significant and unexpected tax bills.
For founders at incorporation, the amounts involved are typically small because the stock has near-zero value. The election is still worth filing because it protects against future tax exposure as the company grows. For early employees who early-exercise options, the same logic applies at whatever the current 409A value is at the time of exercise.
The compliance consequence of missing the 83(b) window is not abstract. Founders who miss it may face ordinary income tax bills at future vesting events, and the issue frequently surfaces during due diligence at Series A or later. It is the kind of problem that is very inexpensive to prevent and expensive to fix after the fact.
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