Startup Advisor Equity: How Much to Give and How

Most early-stage startup advisors receive between about 0.1% and 1% of the fully diluted company, granted as stock options or restricted shares that vest monthly over roughly two years. Where an advisor lands in that range depends on three things: how early the company is, how much time they commit, and how specific and hard to replace their contribution is. Whatever the number, tie it to a written agreement with clear expectations and vesting, so equity is earned through actual help rather than a title on your website.

This guide gives you reference ranges, the terms that matter more than the percentage, a worked example and a checklist for the agreement.

Typical advisor equity ranges

A widely used reference point is the Founder Institute's Founder/Advisor Standard Template (FAST). In its current version 3 (July 2026), it sizes the grant by company stage and by how involved the advisor is, with vesting over two years and a three-month cliff:

Advisor involvement	Pre-seed	Seed	Series A
Standard (monthly meetings)	0.50%	0.25%	0.10%
Expert (adds introductions and projects)	1.00%	0.75%	0.50%

Two patterns are worth noticing. The percentage falls as the company matures, because each share is worth more and the company's risk is lower. And it rises with involvement, because an advisor who opens doors to customers or helps close a key hire is doing far more than one who takes a call once a month.

Treat the table as a starting point for a conversation, not a price list. Your own numbers depend on your market, your round sizes and how much equity you have already promised.

What justifies a bigger or smaller grant

Before you name a number, write down what you expect from the advisor. Then weigh these factors:

• Time commitment. One hour a month is very different from half a day every week. Estimate the hours over the vesting period.
• Specificity. Generic startup advice is easy to find. Deep knowledge of a regulated industry, a specific buyer group or a technical field you lack is not.
• Track record and network. An advisor who can introduce you to ten qualified customers or investors may be worth more than one with a famous name who will not make calls for you.
• Stage. Before product and revenue, help is scarce and equity is cheap on paper. After a priced round, the same percentage represents real value.
• Cash. An advisor who also receives a fee usually gets less equity, or none.

A useful sanity check: if this person wanted a part-time job doing the same work, would you hire them? If the answer is no, the grant is probably too large.

Advisor, mentor, board member or hire?

Many disputes start because the role was never named clearly.

Role	Typical commitment	Usual compensation
Mentor	Occasional conversations, no fixed duties	Often none
Advisor	Regular sessions plus defined help	Small equity grant, sometimes a fee
Board member	Formal governance role, legal duties	Varies; independent members may receive equity
Part-time hire or consultant	Fixed days per week, deliverables	Salary or fee, possibly employee options

If someone will work a day or more per week on core tasks, an advisor agreement is the wrong vehicle. Treat them as a consultant or part-time employee, with the corresponding contract and, if appropriate, a grant from the employee pool. Our guide to the employee option pool covers how such grants are sized.

How advisor equity vests

Vesting matters at least as much as the percentage. Without it, an advisor who loses interest after two months keeps the full stake.

Common terms look like this:

• Vesting period: about two years is typical for advisors, shorter than the four years common for founders and employees.
• Frequency: monthly vesting, so equity tracks the time actually served.
• Cliff: short or none. A cliff of a few months gives both sides a trial period; a full one-year cliff is unusual for advisors.
• Termination: either side can end the relationship with notice; unvested equity lapses.
• Acceleration: some agreements accelerate vesting if the company is sold. Discuss this explicitly, because it changes what acquirers and later investors see.

The mechanics work the same way as for founders, just over a shorter period. The founder vesting schedule guide explains cliffs, leaver terms and acceleration in detail.

Which instrument to use

The right legal instrument depends heavily on your country and company form, so treat this as orientation:

• Stock options from the equity plan: the advisor gets the right to buy shares later at a fixed exercise price. Common in many markets.
• Restricted shares that vest over time: the advisor owns shares from the start, subject to repurchase if they leave early. Tax treatment can be significant.
• Virtual shares or phantom equity: a cash payment tied to the company's value at an exit, without real shares. Used in some European countries where issuing real shares is administratively heavy.
• Country-specific warrants or plans: some jurisdictions restrict which instruments can go to non-employees, so advisors may need a different instrument than your staff.

Tax consequences for both the company and the advisor differ widely between countries and instruments. Have a lawyer or tax adviser in your jurisdiction choose the structure before you promise anything in writing.

Worked example: two advisors at pre-seed

A hypothetical pre-seed startup has 10,000,000 fully diluted shares, including an option pool of 1,000,000. It brings on two advisors:

• Advisor A, a former head of procurement in the founders' target industry. Expected help: two sessions a month plus introductions to buyers. Agreed grant: 0.5%, or 50,000 options.
• Advisor B, an experienced SaaS founder who reviews metrics once a month. Agreed grant: 0.25%, or 25,000 options.

Both grants vest monthly over 24 months with a three-month cliff and come out of the existing pool, which shrinks from 1,000,000 to 925,000 unallocated options. The founders' percentages do not change at this point, because the pool already counted in the fully diluted total.

A year later, the company raises a seed round in which the new investor receives 20% of the post-money company, at a post-money valuation of €10,000,000. Every existing holder is diluted by the same factor of 0.8:

Holder	Before seed	After seed	Paper value at €10M post-money
Advisor A	0.50%	0.40%	€40,000
Advisor B	0.25%	0.20%	€20,000

Now look at the implied price of the advice. If Advisor A spends about four hours a month over 24 months, that is roughly 96 hours. At the seed price, the grant is worth about €40,000 on paper, or around €417 per hour, before any further dilution and before considering that options may end up worthless. That is not unreasonable for introductions that close real deals, but it would be expensive for generic feedback.

To see how grants like these and a pool top-up play out across several rounds, enter your own rounds in the funding dilution calculator.

Budget advisor equity as a whole

Each grant looks small. The problem is the total. Five advisors at 0.5% each are 2.5% of the company, which could be a senior engineer's grant or a meaningful part of your next pool top-up.

Set an overall advisor budget before you start, for example a hypothetical 1.5% of fully diluted shares for all advisors combined over the next two years. Then decide which gaps in the team actually need an advisor. Keep every grant on the cap table from the day it is promised, not the day the paperwork is finished, so you always see the true total.

What to put in the advisor agreement

A short written agreement prevents most problems. Cover at least:

1. Scope: what the advisor will help with and what is out of scope.
2. Time: expected hours or meetings per month.
3. Equity: number of shares or options (not just a percentage), instrument, exercise price if applicable.
4. Vesting: start date, period, frequency, cliff, treatment on termination and on a sale.
5. Term and termination: notice period for both sides.
6. Confidentiality and IP: anything the advisor creates for you belongs to the company.
7. Conflicts of interest: disclosure of competing advisory roles or investments.
8. Cash fee and expenses, if any.

Stating the grant as a number of shares or options avoids confusion later, because a percentage changes with every round.

Common mistakes

Granting before the relationship is tested. A few months of working together, or a short cliff, shows whether the advisor will actually engage.

Handing out equity for a name on the pitch deck. Investors look for advisors who do real work, not famous names with no involvement.

Verbal promises. "We'll give you some equity" without a document is a common source of disputes during due diligence.

No vesting. An unvested grant to someone who stops helping is permanent dilution with nothing in return.

Ignoring the pool. Advisor grants that drain the pool can force a top-up just before a round, which dilutes the founders again.

Checklist before you make an offer

• Role written down: advisor, mentor, board member or hire
• Expected hours and concrete help defined
• Grant sized against stage, involvement and your overall advisor budget
• Vesting of about two years, monthly, with a short or no cliff
• Instrument and tax treatment checked with a professional in your country
• Grant stated as a number of shares or options and recorded on the cap table
• Termination, confidentiality, IP and conflicts covered in the agreement

Summary

Advisor equity usually ranges from about 0.1% to 1%, scaled down as the company matures and up with real involvement. Vesting over roughly two years with monthly tranches and a short cliff keeps the grant tied to actual help. Set a budget for all advisors together, take grants from the pool, record them on the cap table immediately and put everything in a short written agreement.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Equity instruments and their tax treatment differ by country; have a qualified lawyer or tax adviser review any advisor agreement before you sign it.