How equity works at Gumroad: - At the beginning of the year we grant you 100% of your max annual billing amount in unvested options ($200/hr → $364k (52 * 35 * 200)) - As you invoice, you choose the % you’d like to swap for equity. The amount you swap is used to determine how many options... See more

Equity given to the earliest startup employees feels very low relative to the amount of risk they take (especially if they are accepting materially less cash compensation in the deal) Here are a few things you can do as a founder to level the playing field & make them win too: