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I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Give
Firsts
Estimate
First
Employees
Giving
Employee
Think
Rough
Thinking
Aim
Team
Company

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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.
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The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
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AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
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You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
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Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.
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One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.
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... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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Ideas by themselves are not worth anything, only executing well is what creates value.
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I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
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Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
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You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
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Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
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You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer.
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