In my mind it’s between 5 and 10, but obviously there are many factors. (Solo founder vs bigger founding team, skills, unique skills, cost opportunity, etc..)

I think that < 10 people should feel more like a coop than a 30x ratio of equity. It encourages going all in for a while.

Agreed that most early employees deserve more than they get (speaking from experience) but besides greedy founders, equity comp is typically a lot lower due to the way employee option pools are set up vs founder equity. Giving 5-10% via RSAs to a single employee hurts the company in acquiring future talent, no?

Searchcaster