Option pool planner
Plan the hires until your next round. See the pool that the plan needs, and compare it with the pool in a term sheet.
Planner
Size the option pool from your hiring plan
Plan the hires until your next round. Compare the pool that the plan needs with the pool in the term sheet.
Carta, June 2023 to June 2024: approximately 0.3% for hires 6 to 10, less for each later hire. The first 10 hires got less than 5% together.
A part of the hire grants. No public benchmark exists, so this is your policy.
The Carta median after a seed round is 12.1% (rounds from 2021 to 2025).
- Grants for hires
- 4.37%
- 8 hires
- Other grants
- 1.37%
- Advisors and refreshes
- Pool needed
- 5.74%
- Not in the plan
- 6.26%
Grants by hire, as a part of the company
- Hire 1
- 1.49%
- Hire 2
- 0.85%
- Hire 3
- 0.5%
- Hire 4
- 0.44%
- Hire 5
- 0.34%
- Each later hire
- 0.25%
Hire 1 gets 1.49% of the company, as much as 6 hires after the fifth. Early hires take more risk, so they get more. Your plan needs a pool of 5.74%.
A 12% pool leaves 6.26% that the plan does not use before the next round. When the pool is in the pre-money valuation, the holders before the round, mostly the founders, pay for all of it. The new investors pay for none of it. Ask for a pool that agrees with the plan.