How we curate roles and explain equity

What qualifies as a founding role?

We look for early hires who help build a company or establish a function: engineering, product, design, sales, marketing, or operations. The work should involve meaningful ownership and an equity offer or a genuine commitment to equity. A “founding” title alone is not enough; publication requires human review.

Stage and team size

Our focus is early-stage startups. Our equity benchmark table covers pre-seed, seed, Series A, and Series B. Funding stage provides context; it does not establish that a role is a founding opportunity. We review the role’s scope alongside company information. Company size is shown when we can verify it, and we do not treat missing headcount as proof that someone will be employee #1–10.

Recruiter and agency policy

Listings come from founders or the company’s own hiring sources. We do not publish recruiter or agency listings on a company’s behalf. A startup hiring its own founding recruiter is different: that is a role within the startup and is reviewed on the same basis as other founding roles.

Job sourcing and verification

We use founder submissions and company-controlled hiring sources, such as careers pages and applicant tracking systems. Discovery and extraction tools can help gather information, but a human reviews a listing before it goes live. We check the company, role, equity evidence, and application destination. Applications go to the employer’s hiring destination.

What Verified Equity means

Verified Equity means the employer disclosed a numeric equity range. It describes the source of the number, not an independent valuation or a guarantee of the grant you will receive. The final offer and its terms must be confirmed with the employer.

How Estimated Equity works

Estimated Equity, shortened to “Est. Equity” on listings, is a FoundingHunt Benchmark, not an employer offer. When a listing is marked as a benchmark, we display its stored estimated range. If that range is missing, we look up the range for its role category and funding stage in our benchmark table. Employer-disclosed ranges remain separately labeled Verified Equity. When neither range is available, we show Equity unavailable.

Freshness and removal

A listing reflects the evidence available when reviewed; appearing on the board is not a guarantee that the employer is still accepting applications. Monitoring coverage varies by hiring source, and some sources require manual rechecking. We do not promise a universal recheck interval.

We distinguish confirmed closure from an unreachable source or unresolved information. Listings can be hidden while freshness, identity, or conflicting evidence is reviewed, and removed following a verified company request or when they no longer meet our criteria. A listing’s removal does not necessarily mean the employer has closed the opening.

Limitations and corrections

Our board is a curated selection, not a complete picture of startup hiring. Source information can be incomplete or change after review. An equity percentage alone does not establish the value of an offer; confirm the grant, vesting, dilution, exercise terms, and other conditions with the employer.

If a listing or equity figure looks wrong, email support@foundinghunt.com with the listing URL and the correction so we can review it.