Data to Push Back on Advisors Asking for 1 Percent

Data to Push Back on Advisors Asking for 1 Percent

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

January 17, 2025

Resurfacing benchmark data after a wave of DMs: median pre-seed advisor equity is 0.25%, the 90th percentile is 1%—most advisors requesting more simply don't...

LinkedIn: Data to Push Back on Advisors Asking for 1 Percent

Founders - use this post to push back on advisors who ask for 1% of your pre-seed startup.

Advisors - apologies! Some of you really are worth 1% or more to these early founders. But you gotta make the case as to why you're in the top decile of startup advisors.

Resurfacing this data after a unsolicited wave of DMs on the subject, seems like a lot of companies are considering taking on advisors as we kick off the new year (which is cool).

Data in the graphic reflects the full option grant % given to advisors by stage. Split into low (25th pct), medium (50th pct), high (75th pct) and super high (90th pct).

And please ensure these advisors have a vesting schedule! Typically 2-years with a short cliff or you can set specific performance milestones (eg Advisor A gets 0.1% equity after they complete the following tasks for the business).

#startups #advisors #advisorequity #preseed

Big report on early-stage cofounder equity due out on Jan 21st - get your copy here: https://lnkd.in/gC2Y-xfR

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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