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VAST Data is an AI and deep learning computing infrastructure tech company worth over $9 billion. Founded in 2016, the company offers a data computing platform that allows users to train AI models by storing and synthesizing large amounts of unstructured data. As a rapidly growing company with 900+ employees across ten subsidiaries worldwide and equity allocations in 35 countries, VAST Data faces the complexities of equity distribution across a diverse, global workforce.
The Finance team's reliance on manual management tools like Excel has hit its limits. The company’s VP of Finance, Assaf Cohen, recognized the need for a more robust solution to handle the intricacies of international compliance and optimize its equity management process.
Errors are bound to happen when manually processing so much data. From a legal and financial perspective, VAST needed to better manage its employees’ equity.
Multiple Countries with Different Regulations: VAST Data’s rapid growth in talent spread worldwide led to increasing complexity in managing equity across multiple countries, each with unique compliance requirements.
Manual Equity Management Headaches: Maintaining global equity for 900 employees in Excel became overwhelming as the team struggled to handle the complexities of multi-jurisdictional grants and unique compliance requirements for each employee.
Without an automated solution, ensuring regulatory compliance across 35 countries was becoming a severe operational burden for Assaf and the team.
Error-Prone Manual Cap-Table: Manually managing the cap table and employee grants led to constant monitoring due to errors that might occur and significant compliance risks across different countries. Compliance was incredibly challenging for employees under the Employer of Record (EOR) model due to varying legal structures, classification, taxation, and other regulatory requirements by region.
Ready: After hearing about Slice from another VP of Finance, Slice’s platform was presented to Assaf and his team as a centralized and holistic solution for global equity management and compliance. From the get-go, Assaf recognized Slice’s value as an alternative to Excel and other solutions, helping reduce errors and time for the team, simplify tracking, and ensure consistent compliance across all regions.
Set: VAST’s transition from spreadsheets to Slice was completed in less than 6 weeks with the support of a dedicated onboarding team, ensuring a smooth switch, complete cleanup, and zero errors.
Go: Slice’s Compliance Monitor immediately provided peace of mind to VAST’s Finance team. It flags issues before they escalate, helping the finance team confidently manage equity and abandon manual tracking.
Centralized Compliance Management: Since the implementation of Slice, compliance management has become more straightforward and accurate, especially for complex regions like the United States, which have stringent equity regulations.
Automated Employee Processes: VAST Data’s employees, particularly in the U.S., now benefit from a straightforward, paperless process that simplifies option exercises and reduces the VP Finance’s workload by 50%
Focus on Strategic Initiatives: Freed from Excel’s limitations, the finance team can now focus on strategic initiatives rather than manual equity management.
Proactive Compliance Alerts and Essential Oversight: Slice's unique point of difference is a game changer. As the only equity management platform giving live global tax and compliance alerts and information, VAST and the VP of Finance's team have a level of oversight that ensures regulatory adherence across all locations. According to Assaf, compliance alerts play “a critical role” in identifying and addressing potential issues early. This allows the team to avoid costly penalties, especially in the US and UK, where they exercise options more frequently. That alone can save thousands of dollars in tax penalties.
Reflecting on the experience, VAST’s VP of Finance shares advice with other Finance executives in fast-growing companies: “Staying organized is crucial as your company scales. Transitioning to a compliance-focused system like Slice becomes essential once you reach a certain level of complexity where manual processes fall short. Compliance and error prevention are critical at this stage, so invest in the right tools before issues become unmanageable.”
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