Cake's vesting engine supports RSU grants with performance-based conditions, not just standard time-based schedules. On Cake, you can build custom vesting conditions, including milestone-based cliffs and acceleration triggers, and attach them to any grant type, including RSUs. Once a milestone is confirmed, vesting updates flow into the cap table automatically, and stakeholders get automated notifications as vesting events occur.
Performance-based vesting works differently from a standard schedule: instead of shares vesting purely on time elapsed, they vest once a defined outcome, a revenue target, a product launch, a fundraising close, is actually met. Cake's vesting engine treats this as a distinct condition type that can sit alongside, or replace, a standard time-based schedule on the same grant.
Triggering a performance milestone on Cake is a deliberate action. An admin opens the option plan, selects the grant holder, chooses the milestone-based vest type from the Actions menu, then enters the vest date and number of options. That manual vesting event overrides the automatic time-based schedule for that specific grant, which moves to a paused state until the next scheduled or milestone vest is triggered.
For the exact manual-vesting steps, see the help center guide on vesting manually.
Vesting conditions that drive performance
The vesting engine supports milestone-based conditions on any grant type, including RSUs, alongside standard time-based schedules. With Cake, you can:
- Attach a milestone-based vesting condition to an RSU grant
- Combine performance conditions with a standard time-based schedule
- Trigger a milestone vest directly from the grant record
- Keep the cap table and stakeholder notifications in sync once a milestone vest is entered
See how Cake's restricted stock tools work.
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