This is a great post and I am glad it is getting high visibility. Everyone involved in a startup should understand this and consider it as part of their 'do I join' calculation. Additionally, founders shouldn't try to hide it nor should they horde the returns.
Clearly founders are the reason the business exists, but the whole team is the reason it succeeds, everyone deserves a piece of the reward. Mark Cuban is a famous founder that understands this and distributing gains well before his big win. [1]
One piece of feedback on the terms, 3 month w/ 10 yr window is pretty rough for the company. You will end up with a bunch of random people on the cap table... people that didn't really contribute much in the overall picture. That is annoying as you raise and downright frustrating when you exit. I would suggest you go back to a 12 month cliff w quarterly going forward and maybe set the window at years served, rounding down. My 2 cents.
Clearly founders are the reason the business exists, but the whole team is the reason it succeeds, everyone deserves a piece of the reward. Mark Cuban is a famous founder that understands this and distributing gains well before his big win. [1]
One piece of feedback on the terms, 3 month w/ 10 yr window is pretty rough for the company. You will end up with a bunch of random people on the cap table... people that didn't really contribute much in the overall picture. That is annoying as you raise and downright frustrating when you exit. I would suggest you go back to a 12 month cliff w quarterly going forward and maybe set the window at years served, rounding down. My 2 cents.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-employees-million...