There is no clean number, but the useful test is not a percentage, it is a question: if your equity went to zero tomorrow, would your family still be okay? For most founders in the early years the honest answer is that the startup is almost everything, and that is the deal you signed up for. The concern grows as the stakes do: once the paper value is genuinely life changing, having none of it de-risked is a choice, not an inevitability. A rough frame many use is to keep enough outside the company to cover several years of living costs and any debts, so a bad outcome is survivable, while the upside stays overwhelmingly tied to the company.
A curated summary to orient you, not advice. The resources below are the real value.
2 hand-picked resources, 1 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it The clearest short piece on how to think about giving up and holding equity, and why a smaller slice of a bigger outcome is the whole game.
From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham
Open paulgraham.com →Why we picked it The best reminder that avoiding ruin beats chasing returns, and that wealth is the money you don't spend. The whole founder concentration problem, told as stories.
From The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
