[HelgeSeetzen]

I am surprised by the distribution. Does the upper end (>$11M) represent founders or really just non-founding employees (I guess the Google-generation?)? I see 66 votes but not a single comment from anybody in that bracket.

It's unfortunate that ESOP has such a bad reputation. I have never been a non-founding employee, but my last venture paid out about $3M net to about 20 non-founding employees and 30 interns (about $4.5M gross before strike price). Roughly 10%/15% net/gross of the exit value. Ranging from high 66 digit all the way to 3 digits (for late-stage 4 months interns).

In my latest venture we simply give common shares to employees (reverse vesting but otherwise the same as the rest of the cap table).