In‑platform exercising lets employees and other option holders exercise their stock options directly inside Mantle, while founders and admins keep everything—from requests to payments to share issuances—tied to a clean cap table trail. This section is written to help both founders/admins and option holders understand what exercising is and how Mantle’s flow works end-to-end.

Exercising options 101

What it means to exercise

Exercising stock options means the holder chooses to buy shares at the option’s exercise (strike) price, according to the terms of the stock option plan and option agreement.

When options can be exercised

Only vested options are eligible. Unvested options are not yet earned and cannot be exercised.

Why this matters for founders

• Exercised options turn into actual shares, changing ownership on the cap table.

• Strike prices must be based on a valid 409A valuation to avoid tax issues.

• The company may need to collect cash, withhold taxes, and issue share certificates.

Mantle’s in‑platform exercising is designed to automate as much of this workflow as possible while keeping you compliant and audit‑ready.

How in-platform exercising works in Mantle

At a high level, Mantle supports:

Employee/option holder flow

Request exercise, confirm details, and complete payment or other required steps in‑platform.

Admin/founder flow

Review and approve exercises, collect funds, ensure tax/withholding is handled, and automatically issue the resulting shares on the cap table.

The in-platform exercising workflow in Mantle is as follows:

1. Option holder initiates an exercise request from their Mantle portal.

2. Mantle checks vested quantity and calculates the total exercise cost.

3. Admin/founder reviews and confirms the exercise.

4. Payment is processed off‑platform or via your configured workflow.

5. Mantle converts the exercised options into shares and updates the cap table.

For admins: how to enable in-platform exercising

1. Enable in-platform exercising

   • From the left-hand sidebar, click Equity Plans.

   • Select the Equity Plan you'd like to enable in-platform exercising for.

   • Click Actions → Edit.

   • Click the toggle to enable Allow on-platform exercising of options.

2. Set up in-platform exercising

   • Attach your company's exercise notice template.

   • Click Modify in the Approval Delegates section to add admin users as approval delegates.

   • Click Save.

   • Add relevant notes within the Notes section. This may include information like payment instructions.

For option holders: exercising in Mantle

If you are an employee, advisor, or other option holder, this is the kind of flow you’ll see in Mantle:

1. Log in to your Mantle account

   • Use your email and magic link to log in, as with any other Mantle access.

2. View your option grants

   • From your Holdings dashboard, select the option grant you want to exercise. You will see:

     • Total options granted

     • Vesting schedule

     • Exercise price

     • Grant date

3. Start an exercise request

   • Click Actions → Exercise.

   • Mantle will show you:

     • How many options are currently exercisable (vested and not yet exercised).

     • Estimated cost (number of options * exercise price)

4. Choose how many options to exercise

   • Enter the number of vested options you want to exercise (up to the exercisable minimum).

   • Mantle will recalculate the total exercise cost.

5. Confirm address

   • Confirm your personal details and click Next.

6. Download, sign, and attach the exercise notice form

   • Download and sign the exercise notice form.

   • Attach the signed notice form to Mantle.

7. Review and submit

   • Review the exercise summary and click Submit.

   • You'll see a pending status while the company admin reviews and processes it.

8. Payment

   • Once approved, you will find the final details of the total payment due and payment instructions.

   • Complete the payment based on the payment instructions provided to you.

   • Once paid, go back into Mantle and click I have paid.

For admins: reviewing and completing exercises

As an admin, Mantle helps you stay on top of exercise requests and ensures every completed exercise flows through to a share issuance on your cap table.

1. Monitor exercise requests

   • Approval delegates will be notified of new exercise requests via email and the Tasks section of the platform.

   • From the admin view, go to Tasks → Exercise Requests.

2. Approve the request

   • Click on the specific exercise request.

   • Review and confirm payment details and the total purchase price.

   • Click Confirm and Send.

   • At this point, the optionee will receive a notification and will be invited to make the payment off-platform. Once done, they will need to update the payment status within Mantle.

3. Confirm payment

   • Approval delegates will be notified when the payment has been sent by the optionee.

   • Confirm the Payment Type and Cash paid.

   • Click Confirm.

4. Publish security

   • When confirmed, review the details of the resulting share security.

   • Click Update Cap Table.