Being generous with co-founder equity is crucial because co-founders provide the initial energy and activation needed for the company to succeed, especially in the early years.

Be generous with co-founder equity to motivate your founding team during the challenging early years of a startup.

Being more generous with equity for co-founders is beneficial, as it fosters long-term motivation to stay committed to the startup, especially during challenging times.

Founders should be generous with equity for early employees, as they are the ones who build the company over time.

You should be generous with equity to founders and early employees to foster a sense of ownership and commitment.

It's advisable to split equity equally between co-founders to ensure both feel equally invested in the startup's success.

Typically, equity is subject to four-year vesting, meaning co-founders must work for four years to fully earn their equity stake, along with a one-year cliff where no equity is earned if they leave or are fired within the first year. Vesting with a one-year cliff acts as a safety mechanism, allowing you to correct any poor decisions about co-founders without long-term harm to the company.

Ideally, co-founders should have developed the idea together and worked on building the product from the start, but even if one co-founder joined later, an even equity split is still preferred.

Technical co-founders and early employees often get exploited and undervalued in startups, leading to unfair equity splits.