The common setup is like this: 1) 1/3 equity for co-founders, 2) 1/3 equity for investors, 3) 1/3 equity for employees.
Early employees should get the highest bit, and it should drop off sharply after. Depending on the size of the company, you should look for 1-3% if you're under 10, vested over 1-2 years. That's assuming the company is small and plans to exit within a year or two.
A lot of people will probably say 1-3% is a huge amount of equity, even for an employee #10, but I've seen what happens when you don't give good equity to the earliest employees. I'm the type of person who would rather give more equity in order to keep people pretty focused. It probably depends on your opportunity costs, your experience, and how replaceable you are.
I've been in startups where the equity was really low, and the employees will figure out they're being exploited. The rest is history.
Early employees should get the highest bit, and it should drop off sharply after. Depending on the size of the company, you should look for 1-3% if you're under 10, vested over 1-2 years. That's assuming the company is small and plans to exit within a year or two.
A lot of people will probably say 1-3% is a huge amount of equity, even for an employee #10, but I've seen what happens when you don't give good equity to the earliest employees. I'm the type of person who would rather give more equity in order to keep people pretty focused. It probably depends on your opportunity costs, your experience, and how replaceable you are.
I've been in startups where the equity was really low, and the employees will figure out they're being exploited. The rest is history.