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Founders are usually very stingy with equity to employees and very generous with equity to investors. I think this is totally backwards.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Team
Employees
Think
Founders
Thinking
Backwards
Investors
Employee
Generous
Totally
Stingy
Usually
Equity

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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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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
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Ideas by themselves are not worth anything, only executing well is what creates value.
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.
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Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve.
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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
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Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
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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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The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
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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.
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
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