I agree with you with the "Engineer who doesn't know how people work" part of my brain. But the "Has been around people for more than 25 minutes" part of my brain disagrees.
It's not about what the company is legally allowed to do based on employment contracts, it's about the signal that gets sent to other employees, and the signal that gets sent to prospects and candidates. Rumors are a thing, even (especially?) at very small companies, and when someone is applying for a job here three years from now and hears a new guy got fired right before his vesting cliff, that's going to cause problems.
If he's truly a bad employee the safest route is fire him today to prevent additional poor work product from being introduced, but give him the initial vest. Then, send a message to the rest of the company explaining that he was let go, but you gave him his full vest because it's so close to the time and you didn't want the appearance of that being the decision. Easy, clean, no legal challenge surface area, and as long as the employees believe you, no damage to reputation or morale.
A single employee's initial vest should not be enough to materially impact the finances of a startup even at seed stage.
It's not about what the company is legally allowed to do based on employment contracts, it's about the signal that gets sent to other employees, and the signal that gets sent to prospects and candidates. Rumors are a thing, even (especially?) at very small companies, and when someone is applying for a job here three years from now and hears a new guy got fired right before his vesting cliff, that's going to cause problems.
If he's truly a bad employee the safest route is fire him today to prevent additional poor work product from being introduced, but give him the initial vest. Then, send a message to the rest of the company explaining that he was let go, but you gave him his full vest because it's so close to the time and you didn't want the appearance of that being the decision. Easy, clean, no legal challenge surface area, and as long as the employees believe you, no damage to reputation or morale.
A single employee's initial vest should not be enough to materially impact the finances of a startup even at seed stage.