Founders often discover Section 409A only when a lawyer mentions penalties or an employee asks about strike price. This book removes that surprise by giving you the complete guidance a seasoned chief financial officer would share in a one hour meeting. It is the 409A volume in the Fractional CFO Playbook series, and it answers the fifteen to thirty questions most likely to surface when you open an option plan, refresh a valuation, or prepare for a funding round.

Each chapter starts with a direct question, such as why a term sheet voids the old appraisal or how preferred share rights cut common value. The answer follows in plain language and shows the cash, dilution, and audit impact in numbers you can relay to the board. Read only the chapters you need today and you will gain practical certainty in less than an hour, or work through the full set to build a complete defense against cheap stock errors.

Real cases close the book. You will see how Good Technology and Box made missteps that triggered option re pricing, stock based compensation charges, and employee lawsuits. Their stories turn regulations into clear dollar costs you can avoid.

The author is William McNarland, CFA, a private equity veteran who has guided more than one thousand valuations and financings that moved ten billion dollars of capital. As a fractional CFO he fields these same questions in boardrooms every week. His goal is to give founders fast, reliable answers they can apply before the next grant or investor call.