10-15% carve out for ESOP is pretty standard from what I’ve seen. 15% for $2MM also is giving you a $13.3MM (repeating of course) valuation which no one can really speak to without further knowledge of your metrics.
Please could you give some examples?
Why does that exist? Primarily so the early investor doesn't get locked out of increasing and or maintaining their participation in a home run outcome. If the early bet turns out to be a great one, it enables them to maximize their potential return. Seed investors will often get diluted quite heavily over time, so that also enables them to offset or eliminate that consequence. They can continue to retain a sizable ownership stake, rather than passively watch as their 10% stake dwindles down to 1%; if they choose to, they could keep the 10% by maxing out their participation rights. Sometimes the structure dictates the pro-rata rights are only for one round, sometimes it applies perpetually. The details can all be negotiated.