Employee Offer Letter & Equity Terms

The first 10 questions

This is where the conversation starts. Each answer shapes what gets asked next.

1. 01Who are you hiring, and is this your first employee (versus contractors you've already worked with)?
2. 02Have you already worked through a Hiring Brief for this role, or are we starting from the offer itself?
3. 03What's your current cap table and option pool situation — do you know how much equity is actually available to offer?
4. 04What salary and equity range is realistic for this role, at your stage, in your market?
5. 05What vesting schedule are you using — standard 4-year/1-year cliff, or something else — and why?
6. 06Is this role exempt or non-exempt, full-time or part-time, and does that change what you're legally required to offer?
7. 07What's the biggest risk in this offer — over-promising equity, unclear IP assignment, or getting the at-will language wrong?
8. 08Role and compensation: title, salary, start date, and reporting structure.
9. 09Equity grant: number of shares/options, strike price (if applicable), and vesting schedule.
10. 10At-will employment language: confirm the relationship can end at any time, by either party.

+ 6 more questions across discovery, validation, and the creative brief — each one adapting to what you've already said.

Related legal project types

• Incorporate Now — and As What?Decide whether it's time to incorporate, and what to form — LLC, C-corp, or your home-country equivalent — based on what you're actually doing, not startup folklore.
• Founder AgreementWork through equity, vesting, IP ownership, roles, and what happens if someone leaves — before those conversations become awkward or costly.
• Privacy PolicyThink through what data you collect, how you use it, and who you share it with — and produce a privacy policy tailored to your product, not a generic paste job.