Advisor Equity Benchmarks From 47000 Grants

Giving equity to advisors? Here are the benchmarks from 47,000 advisor grants.

Note that we don't know if they were also compensated with cash in some cases. All data for US startups to US-based advisors (sorry international folks).

𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀

• Median grant of 0.25% of the company (full value of the options, not annualized)

• 25th pct: 0.1% — 75th pct: 0.5%

• Essentially flat from 2022, also right on the value suggested in the FAST templates

𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀

• 0.1% median grant

• 0.03% at the low end, 0.25% at the high end

• Meaningful drop from 2022

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀

• 0.07% median grant in 2023

• low end = 0.03%, high end = 0.16%

• Flat from the prior two years

Of course they should also have vesting schedules! The most common vesting schedule for these three early-stages is 2 years with either no cliff or a very short one (3 months).

A few extra thoughts:

• Whoa, a quarter of 1 percent doesn't sound like much. True. But if the median equity grant for the first full-time employee is a little over 1% (which it is), then this advisory grant starts to make more sense.

• Some advisors will ask for (and receive) much more than the median - and often even higher than the top end! These are brand-name advisors that either carry weight across the tech world or have deep industry expertise that founders can't get anywhere else.

• What exactly does an advisors commit to doing for this equity? Unclear, unfortunately. But there are advisors in this group who had performance criteria on their equity - things like "advisor receives x% for introducing founder to 2 new hires".

• The more specialized the space, the higher the advisor equity range. Specifically thinking of Biotech, Hardware, and Medical Devices here.

• Seeing a trend of advisors becoming strategic angels as well - useful move for a founder to build closer ties with a really impactful person.

• Many companies have 1-3 advisors. We see very few with a much larger advisory table. Be cautious as those equity grants can add up quickly.

May 2024 be a year of great advice.

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