On: My experience as the first employee of a Y Combina...

[mrshoe]

One company might choose to give an early hire 20%, possibly even making them a cofounder. Another company might give an early hire 0.5%. Hence the 40x variability in the amount of equity given to early hires.

[dustingetz → mrshoe]

all equity isn't created equally -- .5% of google is worth vastly more than 20% of a brand new startup.