💥Seed to Series A Conversion, The Startup "US Bonus", Annual vs Monthly Plans, Vesting Schemes & More
Digesting Insights From the Data
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Linear Vesting Still Dominates…For Now
Matt Schulman digs into whether companies are shifting away from the classic 4-year linear equity vesting schedule in favor of more frontweighted structures. His analysis shows that the trend is not as widespread as the current discussion might have you think.
Private Companies Stick to Basics: Among Pave’s private company customers, linear grants remain the standard. The “frontweighted” buzz seems mostly limited to a few vocal pre-IPO players.
Public Companies Testing Waters: In 2025, 24% of public company new hire grants were frontweighted, up from just 9% in 2021. But 65% of them still issue linear grants.
Pressure from Public Markets: Public firms face real-time stock price volatility and external scrutiny over equity burn, pushing them to experiment more with how equity is structured.
✈️ KEY TAKEAWAYS
Despite headlines, most companies (especially private ones) aren’t overhauling equity structures. Public companies are exploring frontweighted grants, but linear remains the dominant model.
What Makes a Fundable Founder?
Adam Shuaib of Episode 1 Ventures shared findings from analyzing tens of thousands of seed founders and pitch decks. The results shed light on surprising traits that correlate with fundraising success or failure.
Personality Impacts Outcomes: Extroverted founders were 2x more likely to raise. Meanwhile, high neuroticism halved the chances of advancing past Seed.
Unusual Signals Win: Multilingual upbringing, obscure hobbies like base jumping, and early academic achievements were strong fundraising predictors.
PhD > MBA: Having a PhD (especially in AI) boosted fundraising odds significantly. An MBA showed no measurable impact.
✈️ KEY TAKEAWAYS
Investors are favoring founders with emotional stability, international experiences, and quirky high-risk hobbies while MBAs may no longer give you an edge.