The useful part of Duda’s filing is bookkeeping, not tax planning. He sized the sale to the exercise exactly, so the transaction that reads as a $7.8m sale changed his exposure by zero. He separated “I am converting an instrument” from “I am reducing my position” and the filing shows which one happened.

For a private-company founder the equivalent is refusing to let a liquidity event quietly double as a de-risking decision. If you take money out of the company, know and record which of the two you just did, because the number alone will not tell you later.