Decision Cluster · Equity Grants

AI for Equity Grant Decisions

Equity grants are forever. Run each one through a CFO, an Investor, a Lawyer, an Operator, and a Skeptic — and grant what's competitive without giving the cap table away.

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In short

At seed stage, typically 0.5-1.5% depending on role and candidate alternatives. The Investor and CFO will calibrate against your cap table. Generic ranges (like 1%) are often wrong by 50% in either direction for your specific case.

Last reviewed October 1, 2026

An example

One ask, start to finish.
What comes back is a memo.

How a board takes a call like this: her read, who sits, what they ask first, then the call — with how sure they are, who disagreed and the first step.

Equity Grants

Example · Board of 3

First VP Engineering grant at our seed stage — 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%?

Chief of staff

This one needs a board: The CFO, The Investor and The Lawyer. The CFO pressure-tests unit economics, runway, and capital allocation. Each researches alone first, then they react to one another — and on a decision, two of them take opposed sides.

The CFOFinancial Controller
The InvestorVC Partner
The LawyerLegal Protector

Asked first

Is the money for this already in the bank, or still promised?

In the bankPromisedNot yet

The board’s call

Grant the first VP Engineering 1.0% with 4-year vest, 1-year cliff, double-trigger acceleration.

A 1% grant at seed is competitive without being cap-table-destructive. Refresh grants prevent the "fully vested and ready to leave" problem.

Confidence70 · Moderate

The Lawyer disagreed

“409A valuation should be set before granting — late paperwork is a tax mess”

First step Implement annual refresh grants of 0.15% for retained employees starting year 2.this week

Board of 3 · up to 135 credits on the card · an example, not a recorded run

Other asks people bring here

Several asks in one message become several rooms, each with its expert and its own price on the card. Keep or drop any, then convene them together.

Early employee grants — what range for engineer #3 vs engineer #10? — The Investor, up to 85 credits
Should we use ISO, NSO, or RSU at our stage? — The Lawyer, up to 85 credits
Refresh grant policy — annual, every 2 years, or performance-based? — The Operator, up to 85 credits

What you get

What she handles.
On this kind of call.

Stage-and-role grant sizing

The board weighs the right grant against your stage, the candidate's alternatives, and the role's impact.

Vesting + cliff design

The Lawyer and the Investor work through vesting schedules, cliffs, and acceleration triggers calibrated to your situation.

Refresh-grant policy

The Operator designs refresh-grant cadence — usually missing and the silent cause of late-stage attrition.

Dilution-vs-talent trade-off

The CFO and the Skeptic argue when generous grants are recruitment leverage and when they're cap-table erosion.

The board’s call

Grant the first VP Engineering 1.0% with 4-year vest, 1-year cliff, double-trigger acceleration.

Confidence70 · Moderate

What would flip it

Communicate refresh policy at hire — it's a recruitment tool only if known.

The Lawyer disagreed

409A valuation should be set before granting — late paperwork is a tax mess.

First step Implement annual refresh grants of 0.15% for retained…this week

Why SynthBoard

Why SynthBoard for this.
Not one voice. A board.

Whole-policy framing

Most equity advice is grant-by-grant; a board weighs the policy that produces consistent grants over time.

Refresh-grant included

The Operator raises refresh grants — usually missing from the conversation entirely.

Lawyer + Investor together

Vesting and acceleration terms are weighed through both legal and investor lenses, not in isolation.

Policy doc on demand

Ask for a starting equity policy and a consult writes it in full, ready for your startup lawyer to finalize.

Who sits

The experts for this call.
Each one holds a position.

Your Chief of Staff proposes who sits for the call, and every board is built with someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer. Name an expert and they take a seat; tell her who you want on your board and they sit by default. How many seats a board has depends on your plan.

Financial Controller

The CFO

Revenue is a story. Cash is a fact. Show me the month the money runs out.

The CFO Financial Controller

Best on: Pricing, runway, discounts, and a hire you can barely afford.
Won’t let you: Confuse revenue with cash, or a signed deal with a paid one.

Try asking The CFO

Start with

The CFOOpen on every plan, Free included

Pick an expert

Hover, tap or tab throughSwipe, then tap one

GPT
Claude
Gemini
Grok

Seats are spread across model families: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and more.

Questions

Fair questions.
Straight answers.

What people ask before they bring this call to a board.

How much equity should I grant my first VP?

ISO, NSO, or RSU — which at my stage?

For US private companies pre-IPO, ISOs are usually best for early employees (favorable tax treatment); NSOs for international or above-limit grants; RSUs only at scale where 409A makes options unappealing. The Lawyer will calibrate for your situation.

How important are refresh grants?

The most under-rated part of equity compensation. Without refreshes, your senior people are fully vested at month 49 with nothing left to vest — usually the trigger for attrition. The Boardroom will design a refresh cadence for your situation.

Single vs double-trigger acceleration — when does each apply?

Single-trigger (vesting on acquisition alone) heavily favors the employee and creates retention risk for acquirers. Double-trigger (acquisition + termination) is more common and balances both sides. The Lawyer and Investor will pressure-test for your context.

Can the panel evaluate a specific grant offer?

Yes — describe the candidate, role, grant proposed, and the panel will pressure-test against benchmarks and your cap table.

Does this replace a startup lawyer or compensation consultant?

No — it sharpens the questions you take to them. A lawyer drafts the documents; a compensation consultant benchmarks specific grants. A board is the upstream policy call that feeds both.

SynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.