The risk is still quite high. Incubator funding != VC funding. 7.5% is not "way too much" at this point. Are you paying $85-100k for a fresh out-of-college dev

The risk is still quite high. Incubator funding != VC funding. 7.5% is not "way too much" at this point. Are you paying $85-100k for a fresh out-of-college developer? If no, then he's putting capital at risk (opportunity cost) and 7.5% is a quite reasonable slice. Really, though, it comes down to this: does hiring him (and getting N years of his work, where N is the vesting period) make the company 7.5 percent more valuable? If yes, then you're not really giving anything up by cutting him a 7.5% slice.