Founder shares and pre-seed are often pre the first valuation and at a nominal corporate valuation of $100 or $1000 total. I've written checks for $30-50 befor

Founder shares and pre-seed are often pre the first valuation and at a nominal corporate valuation of $100 or $1000 total. I've written checks for $30-50 before. A $10mm Series A valuation is likely going to be something like $10k for 1% of the common. $10k is a lot of money, but if I believed in a company enough to take a Series A 1% role I'd probably do $10k. It's better to get in right before a valuation change, of course -- it might have been 6mo since a 409a valued the company at $3mm.