On the 0.5-1% equity, here is an old post by Venturehacks/Angellist outlining the early stage (series A) option pool shuffle: http://venturehacks.com/articles/o

On the 0.5-1% equity, here is an old post by Venturehacks/Angellist outlining the early stage (series A) option pool shuffle: http://venturehacks.com/articles/option-pool-shuffle http://venturehacks.com/articles/option-pool-shuffle So while the table lists 0.5-1% for early stage lead engineer, it might be bigger for team of 3, 5 or 10 people in seed stage. "To allocate the option pool from the hiring plan, use these current ranges for option grants in Silicon Valley: Title Range (%) CEO 5 – 10 COO 2 – 5 VP 1 – 2 Independent Board Member 1 Director 0.4 – 1.25 Lead Engineer 0.5 – 1 5+ years experience Engineer 0.33 – 0.66 Manager or Junior Engineer 0.2 – 0.33 These are rough ranges – not bell curves – for new hires once a company has raised its Series A."