I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.
If you don't love and believe in what you're building, you're likely to give up at some point along the way.
You should be giving out a lot of equity to your employees.
We've seen a lot of data at YC now, and the most successful companies and the ones where the investors do the best... end up giving a lot of stock out to employees- year after year after year.
You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
One of the pieces of advice that we give at YC is: try to work together on a project rather than just doing an interview.
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