Plan your Sysdig NSO exercise
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOSysdig is pre-IPO. Plan your NSO exercise tax (federal, state, FICA) at any expected valuation.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Tax inputs
Hold strategy
Best after-tax payout — at year 1
$199,080
Sell + invest wins by $20,783 over Hold 1 yr.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Sell + invest
Best payout| Bargain element (sale − strike) | $350,000 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$5,075 |
| Additional Medicare | −$3,150 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $18,573 |
| LTCG on diversified gain (fed + state + NIIT) | −$5,219 |
| Net at year 1 | $199,080 |
Sell every share immediately; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.
Exercise + hold 1 yr
| Sale proceeds (year 1) | |
| LTCG tax (federal + state + NIIT) | $0 |
| Net at year 1 | $178,297 |
Sold 2,678 shares at exercise to cover strike + tax; 2,322 shares held 1 yr for LTCG.
Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're exercising as a current employee.
Both columns are stated in year-1 dollars: sell-now proceeds compound at the market return and pay LTCG on the gain at year 1; any cash paid out of pocket on the hold side carries the same opportunity cost.
Net at year N — by hold period
Estimates only. Excludes AMT (NSOs do not trigger AMT), state-AMT, multi-state moves, and disqualifying-disposition edge cases. Not financial advice.
You calculated one NSO decision. The beta plans NSOs alongside RSUs and ISOs in a single multi-year tax plan.
Request beta access →About Sysdig
Sysdig is a privately held Cybersecurity company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
Cloud security.
Equity grants at Sysdig typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
Loris Degioanni, one of the co-creators of Wireshark, founded Sysdig in 2013 to bring deep system-call visibility to Linux containers and later extended the platform into cloud security. Today Sysdig is the primary commercial entity behind the open-source Falco runtime security project, and its cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) detects threats in real time at the kernel level. The company raised $350 million in a Series G round in December 2021 at a $2.5 billion valuation; by 2025 it had reached $283 million in annual revenue.
Sources: sysdig.com · sysdig.com
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Sysdig.
Sysdig NSO exercise creates ordinary income on the bargain element (federal, state, and FICA) at the price on the day you exercise. The calculator works at any valuation, so you can model your exercise cost at the current 409A FMV, an expected IPO price, or post-IPO scenarios.
All Sysdig tools → · Use the generic NSO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Sysdig equity questions
- How is a Sysdig NSO exercise taxed?
- Exercising a non-qualified stock option (NSO) creates ordinary income on the bargain element (the price on the day you exercise minus your strike), subject to federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA. The calculator above computes that tax for your Sysdig grant and compares selling the shares now against holding past the one-year mark for long-term capital-gains treatment.
- Does Sysdig grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Sysdig typically takes the form of incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs). Incentive stock options can trigger the alternative minimum tax (AMT) when you exercise.
- Are Sysdig shares eligible for QSBS?
- They might be. Qualified small business stock (QSBS) under Internal Revenue Code Section 1202 can exclude federal tax on much of the gain when shares were acquired at original issuance from a C-corporation while its gross assets were under $50 million, and held at least five years. Whether your Sysdig shares qualify turns on when you acquired them and the company's asset size at that time.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your Sysdig equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.