How Do You Grant Equity As Your Startup Grows?

“Here’s what I think is fair for your role,” I said to “Ken,” one of my cofounders. Ken smiled, and said, “I was thinking the same number.”

We shook hands, and that was that. I had agreed to the equity for my first cofounder. “One down, four more to go,” I said to myself.

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Next up was Jeroen, our VP Engineering. I went through almost the exact same conversation with him when he joined the company.

“Here’s what a VP Engineering gets for equity,” I said to Jeroen. Jeroen looked at me and said, “That seems fair.”

We shook hands, and that was that. My conversations with Adolfo and “Randy,” my other two cofounders, went similarly.

And that’s how it should be for you and your cofounders. You should be in synch with regarding the equity split.

So, off we went to close our initial funding. At the same time, we were in heavy recruiting mode for engineers.

We had a plan to get to around 20 employees, including the founders, by the end of post funding year one. Then we would get to 35 employees by the end of year two.

We knew what the equity ranges for each of the roles we were hiring was, and we stuck to that. Our philosophy…