Don't be that guy. Let them vest and be on their way.
Being generous and parting on good terms is desirable, even when they suck. Even moreso on a small team.
Being generous and parting on good terms is desirable, even when they suck. Even moreso on a small team.
The desirable part might be what happens to the morale of the rest of the team.
A possibly vindictive boss is going to be on the mind for everyone who is still there and delivering value - you also risk dividing your team's opinions on this topic ("so unfair" vs "good riddance").
As with a lot of startups with a handful of employees, often what an employee thinks they are getting is some percentage of "possibly nothing" & the person might also have come to the same conclusion before underperforming.
So you might be getting some brownie points with the team, the person getting thinks they're getting nothing of value(but not that you're yanking it out of their hands) and the cap table is not going to be affected anymore than hiring someone & them booking it out on the first vest, which happens.
And despite his performance, he did earn it.
Since terminating him is a question related directly to his vesting, everyone is going to know he was let go right before vesting to eek out the best possible value from him right before he gets something he’s worked a year to receive.
“Yeah but our contract says” is literally the worst thing you can do with a small company if you want morale to be high.
Learn from the experience and how you can identify, investigate, address and correct future pivots like theirs. Don't let them become the wrong kind of example for how you do business.