# Vesting schedule

The dates over which a granted stake is actually earned by staying.

A [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher)'s equity almost never arrives at closing. It is earned across years and often across performance gates, and the schedule is where a backer's headline percentage becomes what a searcher will really hold. It governs a key manager's grant the same way. Ask for it in writing before a [term sheet](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/term-sheet) is signed, because the difference between a four-year and a seven-year schedule on the same headline number is most of the outcome. Firms very rarely publish this, so it has to be asked for.

In numbers: A 25% stake vesting in equal quarters over four years is 6.25% earned for each year of staying.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/vesting-schedule
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt