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How much equity to ask for in a founding role

How much equity should you ask for?

Short answer

Ask for a grant in line with how early you’re joining and how much you’ll own. Carta’s data puts the median grant for a startup’s first hire at about 1.5% of the company, falling to about a third of a percent by the fifth hire. A percentage alone doesn’t tell you what a grant is worth, so confirm the share count, strike price and vesting before you compare offers.

Updated Oct 13, 20263 min read

Start with how early you’re joining

Equity for early hires falls quickly with each hire. In Carta’s data on more than 8,000 grants to early hires from June 2023 to June 2024, the median first hire received 1.49% of the company. The median fell to 0.85% for the second hire, 0.50% for the third and 0.34% for the fifth. Carta’s December 2025 data puts the median grant for a startup’s first engineer at 1.54%.

These are medians: half of the grants were smaller. Datasets also differ because they count different people. Pave’s data on senior founding engineers in San Francisco, New York and Seattle, published in 2023, puts the median at 0.33% and the 90th percentile at 1.24%. A “founding” title doesn’t always mean one of the first few hires, so ask which hire you would be.

FoundingHunt Benchmark ranges

When an employer hasn’t disclosed an equity range, FoundingHunt listings show Estimated Equity: a FoundingHunt Benchmark by role and stage, not an employer offer. These are the current ranges, last calibrated in May 2026:

  • Engineering (founding, product, design and AI engineers): pre-seed 0.5–2%, seed 0.25–1%, Series A 0.1–0.5%, Series B 0.05–0.2%. AI engineers run slightly higher at seed (up to 1.25%) and Series B (up to 0.25%).
  • Product, design, GTM and data: pre-seed 0.3–1.5% (data 0.3–1.25%), seed 0.15–0.75%, Series A 0.05–0.3% (product managers up to 0.35%), Series B 0.02–0.15%.
  • Sales, marketing, growth, operations and chief of staff: pre-seed 0.25–1%, seed 0.1–0.5%, Series A 0.05–0.25% (account executives up to 0.2%), Series B 0.02–0.1%.
  • Partnerships and finance: pre-seed 0.2–0.75%, seed 0.1–0.4%, Series A 0.03–0.2%, Series B 0.01–0.1%.
  • Recruiting and customer success: pre-seed 0.1–0.75%, seed 0.05–0.4%, Series A 0.02–0.2%, Series B 0.01–0.1%.

Where a listing shows Verified Equity, the employer disclosed that range. Use it over any benchmark.

What moves the number

  • How early you join. Hire number matters more than title. The first engineer and the fifth engineer can both be called “founding.”
  • How much you’ll own. Building the core product or starting a function from nothing justifies more than joining a defined role.
  • The salary trade-off. A larger grant often comes with less cash. Some companies let you choose between more salary and more equity.
  • Seniority. A track record of doing the same job at a similar stage strengthens your case.
  • Stage. Later companies grant a smaller percentage, but each share costs more and has more evidence behind it.

What to confirm besides the percentage

  • Shares and fully diluted shares outstanding. Your percentage is your shares divided by the fully diluted total. Without both numbers, a percentage can’t be checked.
  • Strike price and the latest 409A valuation. These set what it costs to buy your shares. See strike price.
  • Liquidation preferences. How much investors are paid before common stock in a sale. See liquidation preference.
  • Vesting and cliff. When the equity becomes yours. See understanding vesting and cliffs.
  • Exercise window. How long you have to buy vested options after you leave.
  • Refresh grants and acceleration. Whether you can earn more equity later, and what happens to unvested equity if the company is sold.

The equity offer questions list turns each of these into a question to send the company.

How to ask

  1. Get the full grant details in writing before you negotiate: share count, fully diluted shares, strike price and vesting.
  2. Ask for a specific number and give your reason. A hypothetical example: “Given I’d be building the data pipeline from scratch, I’d like to discuss 1% rather than 0.5%.”
  3. If the percentage is fixed, negotiate the terms around it: a longer exercise window, an earlier refresh, or a different salary and equity mix.
  4. Make sure the final terms appear in the offer letter and grant documents.

Model the offer in the Equity Calculator, compare packages in the Offer Comparator, and read how to negotiate founding team compensation for the conversation itself.

Related questions

Is 1% equity good for a founding engineer?

It depends on how early you join. For one of the first few hires at pre-seed or seed, 1% is within the range Carta reports for early hires. At Series A or later it would be high. What decides its value is the share count, strike price and liquidation preferences behind the 1%.

Should I take more equity or more salary?

Equity pays out only if the company is sold or goes public at a high enough price, and many startups never get there. Make sure the salary covers what you need, then decide how much cash you would trade for more shares. The Offer Comparator shows both side by side.

Why do later-stage startups offer a smaller percentage?

Each funding round adds shares and raises the company’s valuation, so the same number of shares is a smaller slice and costs more to buy. A smaller percentage of a later-stage company is not automatically worth less than a larger percentage of an earlier one.

What does Estimated Equity mean on FoundingHunt?

Estimated Equity is a FoundingHunt Benchmark by role and stage, shown when an employer hasn’t disclosed a range. It is not an employer offer. Verified Equity means the employer disclosed a numeric range.