[vivegi]

Shares in the company are about control. Founder teams (ie., founder/co-founders) should decide early on about how much control each cofounder is going to retain through their ownership -- this is anyway part of forming the founding team based on the skills and capital they bring to the table.

When it comes to expanding the team with key employees outside of the founding team, giving them equity share is a decision that the founding team needs to make. A policy decision could be x% of the shares will be dedicated to key employees equity participation.

Also, key employees doesn't have to be all employees. You can segment this by role, service duration etc., For eg: an entry level role may not be eligible, but may become eligible after x months of service in the company.

There are opposing philosophies to the above. But most use some form of probation period to make employees eligible for participation.

Edit: Also, typically the equity is granted through options vesting. So, it is part of deferred compensation over a vesting period that runs over several years. It is also tied to differentiated performance-based pay.