Startup founders: here's a cheatsheet for giving out equity to advisors.
The key numbers for each stage are:
Pre-Seed
The median advisor received 0.23% of company equity (the FAST agreement default is .25%, implying there are a number of smaller equity grants happening now)
Seed
Median was 0.10% this year so far, down from 0.13% last year
Series A
Median was 0.07%, flat from 2022
Altogether, it looks like founders have continued to value advisors in much the same manner as the prior 12 months. And there are a LOT of advisors on cap tables these days - the dataset looked at over 20,000 individuals who qualified under the "advisor" label in just these three initial stages.
The fact that grants are by and large flat from last year is interesting given the increased scrutiny many founders are applying to their equity pools these days.
As fundraising has slowed, conserving the equity pool has become a higher priority - but it looks as though advisors still bring enough value to warrant healthy equity grants in the eyes of most founders.
Last note - always have a vesting schedule on these advisor grants. The typical advisor schedule we're seeing right now is 2 years with a 3-month cliff, but there are a number of schedules that may make sense for your business.
Big compensation report out on Tuesday, happy advising this weekend!
#cartadata #advisors #equity #Seed #SeriesA #PreSeed #founders
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