Pre-seed founders: here's how companies like yours are compensating advisors with equity.
Data from 1,484 US companies for the first half of 2023. The advisor grants in question must have been issued before any priced equity was raised.
Advisors are very common - about 45% of pre-seed companies on Carta will end up issuing at least one advisor equity grant. But how much of the company do these advisors typically receive?
So far in 2023, the median equity grant at this stage has been 0.23%, which is just under the 0.25% recommended in many FAST agreements.
Breaking down the data a little further - 75% of all advisor grants come in below 0.5% of company equity.
A few data highlights:
Among companies issuing any advisor equity, the average number of advisors is 2.7.
Companies with 4 or more advisors are concentrated in the Biotech, Lifesciences, and Hardware spaces.
A higher percentage of pre-seed companies on Carta issued equity to advisors in 2023 than 2022 so far.
Grants of 1.5% or more company equity are far more common outside California.
Pre-seed insights week continues! Our full pre-seed report will go live Friday, be sure to subscribe at the link in graphic to get yours delivered.
And we'll dive even deeper into Q2 pre-seed and general data in our virtual event on August 17th with Maren Bannon - can't wait to ask all your questions to a real expert.
#cartadata #preseed #advisors #equity #startups #founders
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