Did you know you??? That the largest pair of eyes in the world belongs to the giant squid. Its eyes are the size of soccer balls and are at least 25 centimeters across

In today’s email:

ADVISOR EQUITY COMP

As a startup founder, it's easy to fall into the trap of overvaluing advisors, believing they alone can help you secure VC investments. But the reality is, most advisors don't really do much at all and just sit on your captable.

It's not that the advisor sucks or lacks knowledge; it's that founders often fail to clearly define the roles and expectations of advisors ahead of time, setting the relationship up for failure.

Drawing from Carta's platform, here are key benchmarks for 47,000 advisor equity grants:

🌱 Pre-Seed Advisors

🪴 Seed Advisors

🌲 Series A Advisors

Advisor equity grants typically come with vesting schedules, commonly set at 2 years with cliffs. This ensures alignment of interests and incentivizes long-term commitment from advisors.

While experienced advisors can offer invaluable knowledge, guidance, and connections, their impact on your startup's trajectory may not always match the compensation they receive.

Advisors are important, but ultimately, it's the collective efforts of the founding team that make or break success...don't forget that.

PODCAST OF THE WEEK

Yelp’s Founding Story

In 2004, two former Paypal engineers, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russ Simmons, were spit-balling new internet ideas. Out of their brainstorm came a site where you would email your friends asking for local business recommendations. The launch was a flop, but they discovered that people seemed to enjoy writing reviews not just for friends, but for the general public. Fifteen years later, Yelp is a publicly traded company with more than 4,000 employees and over 140 million monthly visitors. Listen Here