Startup founders vs startup employees: ownership over time.
Data is a snapshot of the median allocated to each group right after a round closes. So after the seed round, the founding team usually owns 56% while the employee pool is at 12%.
𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀
The founding team is made up of not many ppl (basically 1-5 individuals).
The employee pool comprises many, many ppl by the time you hit the later stages (high hundreds or thousands).
Founder equity is refreshed or added to on occasion, but an individual employee can also see refresh / tenure / merit equity grants.
The employee option pool is 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱. Meaning there is some leftover percentages in there that are not yet granted to anyone. If the company is sold, usually that unallocated equity flows back to the founders.
Founders (typically) have founder shares, or Restricted Stock Awards. Employees get ISOs, Incentive Stock Options. One is real equity after vesting, the other requires both vesting and exercise to become real shares.
It is not very common that founders will get secondary liquidity out along the way. But it is far more likely to be available to the founders than it is for the employees.
Will AI end up increasing the employee option pool (fewer teammates but each person gets a bigger slice) or the founder ownership side?
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