Most advisors at pre-seed ask for 1% of the company. On Carta, the median pre-seed advisor gets about 0.2%, and only about one in ten walks away with 1% or more.

I think most founders get equity backward in the first year. They’re generous with advisors who show up once a month and careful with the first hires who show up every day. I’d flip it. I’d go to the top of the range for hires one through three and be stingy with everyone else.

The simplest test I know is to turn the grant into dollars. At a $10 million cap, 1% is a $100,000 check. Almost no founder would pay a consultant that in cash for one call a month, yet they hand out equity, the more expensive currency, without thinking twice.

The Founder Institute’s FAST agreement is the most widely used advisor template. Version 3 came out in July 2026 with two tiers.

Advisor equity, by stage:

Monthly meetings only: Pre-seed 0.50% / Seed 0.25% / Series A 0.10%

Adds contacts and projects: Pre-seed 1.00% / Seed 0.75% / Series A 0.50%

Nothing in that table pays extra for a famous name. It pays for hours, intros, and projects. Even so, FAST’s pre-seed numbers sit well above what founders actually grant, so advisors walk in anchored on the framework. The data gives founders a lower anchor, and a more accurate one.

The most common waste on a pre-seed cap table is the trophy advisor. A recognizable name goes on slide twelve, the grant gets signed, and the advisor quietly drifts out of the picture.

Before any grant, I’d ask one question. What will this person actually do in the next 90 days? If the honest answer is “make intros,” count the intros. Three warm introductions to real customers or investors are worth a lot. A vague promise of access to a network is worth nothing. FAST includes a checkbox section for writing deliverables into the agreement, and the best agreements I’ve seen fill out every line.

First hires are a different story. On Carta, the median first hire gets 1.45% in SaaS and 2.01% in biotech, falling below 0.5% by hire five.

The trap I see most often is the founding engineer doing co-founder work for 1.5%. That’s an underpaid co-founder, and around month 18 it becomes a retention problem.

They’re also taking a below-market salary for that 1.5%. Most equity grants never liquidate, and the ones that do rarely pay enough to cover the salary they gave up.

Either pay them like a late co-founder, at 5% to 10%, or hire an employee with an employee’s scope. The middle ground breaks.

Generosity here is cheaper than founders expect. Granting the median to the first five hires uses about 3.6% of the company, against a median seed option pool of 12.1%. And the case for more is getting stronger. The median seed team on Carta is now four people. When fewer people carry the company, I believe the equity should follow them.

Most first-hire grants vest over four years with a one-year cliff. The term worth negotiating is early exercise. If the company allows it, a first hire can exercise options before they vest and file an 83(b) election, which locks in taxes at today’s valuation and starts the capital gains clock early. It’s the biggest tax break a first hire can get, and it costs the company nothing. I wrote about how the 83(b) works here.

Salary is renewable. Equity is permanent. The founder’s job is to allocate it correctly, and the best return comes from putting it in the hands of the people building the company every day.

P.S. I’m not a lawyer. Talk to your counsel before you award equity.