Equity Compensation. The majority of the compensation opportunities for each of our executive officers,
including each of our Named Executive Officers, is delivered through RSU awards. We use equity compensation to
align our Named Executive Officers' financial interests with those of our stockholders and to attract top leadership
talent. The time vesting component of our RSU awards encourages retention over the long-term. In addition to the
initial equity grant that each executive officer receives as part of his or her new hire package, the compensation
committee may grant our executive officers additional equity awards each year as business needs dictate given the
nature of our rapidly changing business. When determining the number of RSUs to issue under both new hire and
ongoing awards, we use a projected stock price growth scenario to attempt to mitigate the risk of materially over-
1.1%
98.9%
Base salary
Equity-based compensation
-26-
compensating our executives if our stock price increases significantly. The size of awards that have been granted to
our executive team, including our Named Executive Officers, have not been determined based on a specific formula,
but rather on our board of directors’ or compensation committee’s discretionary judgment regarding the appropriate
level of compensation for the position as compared to those in our peer group or those companies that we consider
direct competitors for talent; the critical nature of the position and the anticipated potential future impact, the size of
each executive’s base salary due to the fact that we do not have a cash based bonus program, and the size and
vesting schedule of prior equity grants. We do, on occasion, issue options to purchase shares of Twitter stock, either
in the form of incentive stock options or non-qualified stock options, to incent those executives who have a direct
impact on our financial growth through a performance-based award.