Founders - ignore the advice "just set aside 20% for employees".
The actual equity reserved for employees grows over time, from about 13% for companies worth $10M to just below 20% for unicorn companies.
Don't want to over-dilute yourself at the early stages!
For pre-seed companies (not pictured), the data is skewed as many don't have a clear option pool until the seed-stage. But we do see most companies start at about 10% of fully diluted equity.
𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆
Today, these option pools are being stretched out over longer periods of time. Founder that were expecting to top off the pool in the next fundraise are having to ration their equity, leading to smaller equity packages for employees
Certain industries reserve more than others, with B2B SaaS and Fintech typically having slightly larger pools and Consumer / DTC Retail smaller ones.
Utilization is all over the place. Some companies come up to their next round having spent nearly the entire reserve of options, others have more than 50% remaining.
Recent spats of layoffs have seen many options return to the pool as employees are deciding not to exercise their vested equity in the 90-day window.
These pools do not take into account founder equity nor any employee-adjacent supporters (advisors, board members, etc).
Lots more data on compensation in our recent State of Startup Compensation report - free to the startup-curious! Hit the link in graphic for some hand-delivered data or just shoutout in the comments below and I'll send it along.
#cartadata #optionpools #employeeequity #founders #startups
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