This blog post is filled with legal mistakes, assuming it is intended to apply to startups generally and not just Finnish startups. By the way--where's the warning that this information doesn't apply outside of Finland?
If you want legal advice, at the very least get it from a blog from a licensed lawyer practicing in your jurisdiction. Grellas, for example, has a very good selection of articles. MoFo and other firms also provide legal templates targeted at startups.
For information on this topic from someone who actually knows what they're doing, please read "An Introduction to Stock and Options" by David Weekly:
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Stock-Options-David-Weekl...
Your advice may be appropriate to Finnish startups, but you don't mention any geographic restrictions on your advice.
Suppose two people, A and B, are equal partners each vesting towards 50% ownership in 3 years. After the first year, they both have vested ownership of 16.6%, what is the status of the other 66% of the company? Does the corporation as an entity own 66% of itself? Do they both really own 50% of the company, with an agreement that new shares will be created in a year and distributed to them? It seems to me like this scenario would mean they both own 50% of shares outstanding, and each year new shares are created which dilute their original holding's equity, but the shares then go to them (so they initially hold ie 10,000 shares of 20,000, then later hold 20,000 of 40,000).
A company cannot directly own itself, but it can indirectly, if it contributes some of its shares to another company that it wholly or partially owns. (This is not permissible in all jurisdictions, such as the U.K.)
Typically, in US startups, the stock is sold to the founders up front, with the company having a repurchase option corresponding to the vesting period.
"On founder equity (we couldn’t miss this one!): All founders must be on vesting schedule. Mark heard nothing about vesting at the time when they started the company. They just divided equity, and then his co-founder Eduardo left."
