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Summary
Upstart is an AI lending marketplace redefining how America borrows, making the process more accurate, efficient, and inclusive.
Hannah Wise BruBaker, Lead Compensation Partner, and her team needed to change their approach to equity design to counteract stock price volatility and stay competitive.
By implementing Market Data from Pave, the Upstart team gained access to real-time insights that enabled them to transform their equity program with confidence.
Key Wins
- Reimagined their equity program, moving from a boxcar model to a one-year equity program
- Built a data-driven equity offering that attracts and retains top talent
- Received extremely positive feedback from employees and candidates
Background
Upstart offered a boxcar grant program, which provided employees four years’ worth of annually vesting grants up front—a practice that can deliver great returns when companies experience steady growth over time.
Unfortunately, “that kind of model just doesn’t hold up when you’re dealing with the kind of stock price volatility we saw at Upstart after the IPO,” Hannah said. The program was delivering big payouts for some but underdelivering on intended grant value for others.
“Looking at it through a pay parity lens, you can see it’s not doing what we intended, and it’s not helping us retain people the way we want to.” said Hannah. The team knew they needed something new.
To design a more stable and competitive program, Hannah and her team needed access to real-time equity benchmarks. They turned to Pave.
Challenge
Rather than competing with big tech on sheer grant size, the team focused on innovating through structure, enabling faster vesting and more meaningful refresh opportunities. The compensation team decided to transition to equity grants that fully vest after one year. The challenge was how to bring the program to life.
“We didn’t want to just take a traditional four-year grant and give people a quarter of that each year. We wanted something that actually moved the needle on competitiveness.”
—Hannah Wise BruBaker, Lead Compensation Partner at Upstart
However, most market data solutions highlight the intended grant value and number of shares, but they don’t provide annualized grant values. “Typical market data doesn’t show whether companies are using three-year or four-year grants, what participation rates are, or who’s eligible for refresh grants,” Hannah said.
To avoid relying on incomplete data and anecdotal trends, the Upstart team needed reliable equity insights.
Solution
Using Market Data, the Upstart team was able to completely transform their equity strategy and design a program that actually fits their post-IPO reality.
“Pave has really helped us make sure our one-year grants are competitive and attractive, even to people who have been at companies for years,” Hannah said.
The ability to leverage real-time insights on vesting schedules and annualized grant values means Hannah and the team can make equity design decisions with confidence. Plus, Pave’s user-friendly and intuitive interface makes it simple for Hannah to find the data and reports she needs.
Coming from the world of stale survey data, Pave has been pivotal.
“It’s the only accurate data resource that’s parsed in a way that’s usable for us. Without Pave insights, we would have far less reliable data to work with.
—Hannah Wise BruBaker, Lead Compensation Partner at Upstart
The one-year equity program has made Upstart’s total rewards more competitive, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Existing Upstarters have welcomed the program updates, and candidates are excited to learn their equity will vest on a quicker timeline. Attracting and retaining talent? Check and check.
Looking Ahead
“There’s a never-ending list of exciting things we want to explore,” shared Hannah.
At the top of that list is a focus on automating repetitive compensation tasks to make space for more impactful and strategic projects.
Moving forward, Hannah is focused on structuring compensation to support business growth and better educate employees on their pay—and Pave will continue to play a critical role. In fact, Hannah shared, “it’s hard to imagine going back to managing equity compensation without Pave.”
