Index Ventures · Starting Up

📄 Article

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Why we picked it This is the durable reference for the structural line between a co-founder and a hire: co-founders own the company outright on day one, everyone hired afterward comes through the option pool, and even a senior non-founding CTO or VP lands in the 0.8% to 1.5% executive band, not the founder tier. Reading it makes the cost of mislabeling a senior hire as a co-founder concrete before you sign anything.

Rewarding Talent: Founders, Investors and Employees

From Index Ventures by Index Ventures 20 min read

Co-founders start with 100% between them; every later hire is granted from the ESOP pool, a hard structural distinction
A non-founding C-level or VP hire typically lands around 0.8% to 1.5%, an order of magnitude below founder equity
Model the dilution across future rounds before you grant, since a founder-sized grant compounds into a very expensive mistake

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Answers What's the difference between a co-founder and an early key hire, and how do I decide which I need?

📄 Article

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Why we picked it Founders always ask two questions: how big should the pool be, and how much does one hire get. This answers both with hard numbers instead of vibes: a seed pool of roughly 10 to 15% of fully diluted equity, and a per-role grant table (senior engineer around 1.0%, mid-level 0.45%, junior 0.15%) so you benchmark each offer by seniority instead of guessing.

Rewarding Talent: Option Grant Allocation Considerations and Benchmarks

From Index Ventures by Index Ventures 15 min read

A seed-stage option pool typically runs 10 to 15% of fully diluted equity, which is the same carve-out investors ask you to create at a priced round
Individual grants scale by role and seniority: senior engineers land near 1.0% of FDE, mid-level around 0.45%, juniors near 0.15%
A typical seed team of ten adds up to roughly 5% of the fully diluted equity in grants, a useful sanity check on your total pool

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Answers How do I set up an ESOP pool and grant equity to my early employees legally?

📄 Article

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Why we picked it A full handbook on option pools and employee grants built on data from thousands of startups. It answers the practical questions behind the early engineer side: how big an option pool to set aside and what a given role and level should get. Deeper than a single blog post when you are ready to design a real plan.

Rewarding Talent

From Index Ventures handbook

Set aside a meaningful option pool, often twelve to fifteen percent at seed
Grant sizes should scale by role, level, and how early someone joins
Benchmarks keep your offers competitive without over granting

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Answers What equity should I offer a technical co-founder vs. an early engineer?

🛠️ Tool

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Why we picked it A free calculator that turns the benchmarks into concrete grant sizes for a specific role, level, and stage. Plug in your early engineer's seniority and see a realistic range instead of guessing. It makes the gap between a co-founder stake and an employee grant visible in numbers.

OptionPlan by Index Ventures

From Index Ventures interactive tool

Get a data backed grant range for a specific role and level
See how grants shrink as the company matures past seed
Turn abstract benchmarks into an actual offer you can make

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Answers What equity should I offer a technical co-founder vs. an early engineer? When should I stop using an agency and hire my first in-house developer?