Ask HN: Vesting, equity, salaries, etc.
How do you decide how much equity and how much salary to give other founders, and when they should receive these benefits?
Does it make sense to share equity (in the beginning) based on the number of hours each has contributed to the project in advance?
Does it make sense to base the future equity sharing on hours worked after the company is started, so that if we end up with slackers they get no more than they earn -- and so those of us who do most of the work get nearly all the equity? Or is this more of a salary issue than an equity issue?
I'm particularly interested in how other companies have structured their equity and salary arrangements, especially when they work well and are appreciated by everyone involved:
- How is your equity sharing arrangement structured? - Who gets what percentages and why? - How much equity is reserved for future investors, etc? - How much equity did you receive from the start? - How much more do you get as the business grows? - What determines the amount of stock you own? - Do you receive more stock for more time on the job? - How does vesting work in your company?
Someone once suggested that I keep most of the equity myself and only give out a small single-digit percentage to each of the other founders. This seems too greedy to me, but he also said my equity would be the portion that gets diluted in a round of future funding so I had better keep most of it myself. I have no idea if he knows what he's talking about.
In fact, I have no idea how long each founder should be required to work before they are 'vested', and perhaps even the issue of vesting should be approached as an incremental benefit rather than something that happens all at once.
Basically I'm looking for any insights or examples you can share that might give me some reasonable ideas for structuring our equity sharing arrangement. Thanks.