
Founders - what you pay your advisors in equity is changing.
Data from tens of thousands of advisor equity grants on Carta below:
Pre-seed
Used to be 0.275% per advisor (median)
Now it's 0.225%
Seed
Used to be 0.165%
Now it's 0.129%
Series A
Used to be 0.093%
Now it's 0.068%
Why are advisors getting less equity?
Combination of factors, but my guesses are:
1. Advising a startup is becoming more professionalized. Crazy high equity grants are becoming less common
2. Equity packages are converging on SF / NY values, which tend to be lower for advisors than less mature ecosystem figures
3. As venture cools, equity is more highly valued by both founders and investors. Keeping a clean cap table has become a higher priority.
Data newsletter link in comments to the best of our Carta data.
Hang in there, startup advisors - we still love you.
#cartadata #advisors #equity #advisorequity #startups #founders
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