First Hire Equity grant : 1-2%

What's market for equity grants to startup first hires (non-founder, US)? The average and mean seem to be around.

1% - 2%

If you're giving your first hire more (or less), it's going to prompt questions of why. Again, it's not that its right or wrong, it's that instead of a nod, you'll probably get asked.

Similar to salary, various factors, which include role and seniority, effect the equity offered. But the distribution (range) doesn't seem to be as wide as some may think. According to Carta the 10 pct is 0.15% while the 90 pct is 3.5% (2023). [State of startup compensation equity addendum H1 2023].

It also says the median equity granted is 1%. A survey by Leo Polovets of AngelList posting (2014), has the equity for first hires who were engineers in Silicon Valley as being to 2%-3%.

Also interesting to note is that 70% of first hires are engineers [Lenny's newsletter] (I'm a big fan of Lenny Rachitsky's podcast BTW) And given that engineers typically command higher salaries and equity grants, the mean for non-engineering roles would be lower.

There's a lot of nuance and factors to consider. So know the market and make informed decisions on how much equity to give your first and other hires.

Other useful sources

State of startup compensation, H1 2023 : this has the best data on startup equity compensation I could find - Carta

Index Ventures OptionPlan : online calculator to help determine compensation - Index Ventures

a blog post about different sources and what they say- Holloway guides

[updated : 3/13/2024]