Latest / The Series A Show with Fexingo: Early-Stage Funding, Pitch Decks, and Startup Milestones
Why Startups Are Offering Earnouts to Hire Top AI Talent
Lucas and Luna discuss a growing trend in startup hiring: instead of competing with Big Tech on salary, early-stage companies are offering stock earnouts tied to retention and performance milestones. They break down how a typical earnout structure works, citing the example of a Series A AI startup that gave a senior engineer 20,000 options vesting over four years with an acceleration clause tied to an exit. They also look at Palantir's recent stock dip as a reminder that even public-company equity can be volatile. The episode connects earnouts to the broader shift toward usage-based…
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