Index Ventures
OptionPlan

Entrepreneurs know how important stock options are for hiring and retaining the best talent. But to create an effective option plan you need to know how much to award to each team member. We compiled the largest ever set of benchmark data, comprising over 20,000 option grants from more than 1,650 startups across the US and Europe. We want to help you get this right.

What stage are you at?

SeedVenture

Setup

  1. 1[[ questions.q1 ]] (pre‑funding)

    Question 1 notes:

  2. 2[[ questions.q2 ]]

    Question 2 notes:

  3. 3[[ questions.q3 ]]

    [[ round.label ]]
    Additional dilution = [[ make_percentage(1 - round.cum_dilution_after_a, 0) ]]%

    Question 3 notes:

  4. 4[[ questions.q4 ]]

    Warning:

    Warning:

    Warning:

    Question 4 notes:

  5. 5[[ questions.q5 ]]

    Question 5 notes:

  6. 6[[ questions.q6 ]]

    5[[ questions.q5 ]]

    [[ country.label ]]

    Question notes:

Hiring plan

  1. 7[[ questions.q7 ]]

    6[[ questions.q6 ]]

    Salaries

    Role [[ roles[role].label ]]
    [[ sectors[sector].label ]]

    Edit

    Question notes:

  2. 8[[ questions.q8 ]]

    7[[ questions.q7 ]]

    Option grants as % of salary

    Role [[ roles[role].label ]]
    [[ sectors[sector].label ]]

    Edit

    Question notes:

  3. 9[[ questions.q9 ]]

    Total: [[ total_hiring_plan_executives.total ]] Edit

    Level Hires Ownership (%) Options ($)
    [[ roles[role].label ]] ([[ inputs['hires_' + role + '_individual'] ]] @ [[ inputs['equity_' + role + '_individual'] ]]%) % [[ format_dollar(series_a_valuation_post_funding * (inputs['equity_' + role + '_individual']/100), false) ]]

    Warning:

    Question 9 notes:

  4. 8[[ questions.q8 ]]

    Role [[ roles[role].label ]]
    [[ sectors[sector].label ]]

    Total: [[ total_hiring_plan_employees.total ]] EditEdit

    Question 8 notes:

  5. 10[[ questions.q10 ]]

    9[[ questions.q9 ]]

    Total: [[ total_hiring_plan_employees.total ]] Edit

    [[ sectors[sector].label ]]

    Role Hires Salary
    ($)    		 Options
    (% of salary)    		 Options
    ($)    		 Ownership
    (%)
    [[ roles[role].label ]] [[ format_dollar(inputs['salary_' + sector + '_' + role], false) ]] % [[ inputs['equity_' + sector + '_' + role] ]]% [[ format_dollar(inputs['salary_' + sector + '_' + role] * (inputs['equity_' + sector + '_' + role]/100), false) ]] [[ make_percentage((inputs['salary_' + sector + '_' + role] * (inputs['equity_' + sector + '_' + role]/100)) / seed_valuation_post_funding, 3) ]]%

    Question notes:

Analysis

  1. A[[ questions.aa ]]

    Your stock option allocations to employees hired following your seed round total [[ round(total_esop_you.value, 2) ]]% of your fully diluted equity.

    Analysis A notes:

  2. B[[ questions.ab ]]

    Based on an exit valuation of [[ format_dollar(inputs.estimated_exit_valuation) ]], executives hired at Series A would see an average pre-tax upside on their options of [[ format_dollar(upside_average.executive) ]] Other employees hired at Series A would see upside of [[ format_dollar(upside_average.employee) ]].

    Based on an exit valuation of [[ format_dollar(inputs.estimated_exit_valuation) ]], team members hired at Seed stage would jointly see pre-tax upside on their options of [[ format_dollar(this.round(upside_totals.at_exit.total), true, true) ]].

    Exit valuation aspiration

    Warning:

    Warning:

    Warning:

    Analysis B notes:

  3. C [[ questions.ac ]]

    Role
     
    [[ roles[role].label ]]

    Analysis C notes:

  4. [[ sectors[sector].label ]]

    Role
     
    [[ roles[sector_chart.role].label ]]

    Analysis D notes:

Assumptions

The outputs here are based on a number of underlying assumptions.

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  1. Setup
  2. Hiring plan
  3. Results