EquityBee, a closely watched startup that connects employees who want to exercise stock options with the capital to do so, has brought aboard as chief legal officer a veteran finance executive with a history of starting companies.

Kevin Smith, the new CLO, has more than 20 years of experience building legal and compliance operations for businesses. He founded a number of companies, including Seedchange, the first FINRA-registered online broker-dealer for early-stage investing, and The Vault, a Silicon Valley-based startup acceleration center.