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Series A equity guide: 50% of postings mention equity. 4-year / 1-year cliff is universal at Series A. Some companies offer monthly vesting after the cliff
50% of Series A job postings explicitly mention equity as a compensation component. Based on 82 active job postings from 68 companies.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Postings mentioning equity | 50% |
| Median equity % (where disclosed) | — |
| Vesting schedule | 4 years / 1-year cliff (standard) |
| Companies in dataset | 68 |
| Type | % of grants | Postings |
|---|---|---|
| Equity | 93% | 38 postings |
| Options | 7% | 3 postings |
Role-level equity data coming soon.
Top companies hiring at the Series A stage: Flock · Axon Intelligence · Lila Sciences · Stellar Labs · DualEntry · Sequence · Hello Patient · Zip Security.
4-year / 1-year cliff is universal at Series A. Some companies offer monthly vesting after the cliff.
Stock options give you the right to buy shares at a fixed price (the strike price). They're more common at earlier stages (Seed, Series A, B) when the company is private and the strike price is lower — the upside is higher if the company grows significantly.
Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) are grants of actual shares that vest over time. They're more common at later stages and public companies, where a set dollar value is easier to communicate. RSUs have value at grant; options are only valuable if the company's value exceeds your strike price.
What equity can I expect at a Series A startup?
50% of Series A job postings explicitly mention equity as a compensation component. 4-year / 1-year cliff is universal at Series A. Some companies offer monthly vesting after the cliff.
What is a 1-year cliff?
A cliff means none of your equity vests until you've been at the company for 1 year. After the cliff, the remaining equity typically vests monthly over the next 3 years.
Should I negotiate equity or salary?
At Series A companies, equity upside can dwarf base salary over a 4-year hold. If you're confident in the company's trajectory, negotiate for more equity at a lower salary rather than vice versa.
Seed Stage Equity Guide → | Series B Equity Guide → | Series C Equity Guide → | Series D / Late Stage Equity Guide → | Public Company Equity Guide →
Equity data is aggregated from 82 active job postings at 68 Series A companies tracked by Recruiting from Scratch (2025–2026). Equity mention % counts postings with a non-null equity_type field. Equity % figures come from postings that explicitly list a percentage range; coverage is partial (~41 postings).
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