Giving Equity to Early Employees/Late Cofounders
tptacek: In a VC-backed company, 5% is a huge number. Much larger than it sounds like. A CEO might have 5%.In a situation like this, where you're talking about part-time dev and forum moderation, it's unlikely that anyone on your team is going to value equity as much as you do. Which means that any reasonable allocation you create is a lose-lose.More importantly, if you're successful, the allocations you make today will be a headache in the future. For example, it effectively locks you into whatever corporate structure you have today. You can't grant LLC equity to employees. Also, to safely grant equity, you need a vesting plan.Equity isn't worth anything until you start making money. So   maybe you should look into something more along the lines of profit sharing.