Ask HN: How to offer equity to founding team members?

[codegeek]

If you are starting a startup, outside of founders, how do you usually distribute equity ? Do you create like a 10% pool and allocate to say first 5-10 employees ? I may be asking this incorrectly but this stuff is a bit new to me being a bootstrapped founder so far. Any resources or guides is well appreciated.

[sn0w_crash]

Founder stock is separate from the employee pool.

Get your lawyer to draft up a founder stock purchase agreement as part of your incorporation.

Everyone after that point will be an employee, and their equity will come out of the 10% option pool.

[codegeek → sn0w_crash]

Thanks. Any recommended resources to read/learn more about the 10% option pool ?

[rohitpaulk → codegeek]

The Clerky handbook is a good resource: https://handbook.clerky.com/formation/equity-allocation.

[sn0w_crash → codegeek]

It’s generally common practice. You can get away with 5% if you’re only hiring a couple of people.

The Unusual Ventures field guide covers alot of this:

https://www.unusual.vc/field-guide