

How Much Equity Should You Give to Employees - jaybol
http://www.graemeklass.com/entrepreneurship/how-much-equity-should-you-give-to-employees/

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trevelyan
Unless you have funding, I say none. Equity reduces flexibility for small
bootstrapped businesses. This feels to me like a cultural norm from the VC
days rather than a rational way to grow a good business.

Also, most people really don't care. They will treat your equity as worthless
unless it aleady has value, in which case just pay cash.

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graemeklass
I have found the lack of cash means businesses are more likely to offer
equity. Again, it depends on the ability, the trustworthiness of the employee
and, of course, whether they believe in the business in the first place.

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jack7890
These percentages seem far too low to me. Or, at the least, they only apply to
very late-stage companies. If your startup has <10 employees, 0.05% isn't
enough for even the lowest-level employee.

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drallison
What is the rationale for the basic rule that "each level of the organization
should get about half the number of options as the level above"? Rather than
distribute options by organization chart and title, wouldn't it be better to
treat everyone as an individual contributor and allocate options according to
the value they bring to the company? The guidelines seem to presume that
management is what counts and that the individual contributors, the folks who
make things work, are not all that important. Or am I missing something.

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anamax
> The guidelines seem to presume that management is what counts and that the
> individual contributors, the folks who make things work, are not all that
> important. Or am I missing something.

The most important factor is "what does it take to get the folks you want?"

Strike "most" - it's the only factor.

