  Startups have become in less than 50 years a major component of innovation
and economic growth. An important feature of the startup phenomenon has been
the wealth created through equity in startups to all stakeholders. These
include the startup founders, the investors, and also the employees through the
stock-option mechanism and universities through licenses of intellectual
property. In the employee group, the allocation to important managers like the
chief executive, vice-presidents and other officers, and independent board
members is also analyzed. This report analyzes how equity was allocated in more
than 400 startups, most of which had filed for an initial public offering. The
author has the ambition of informing a general audience about best practice in
equity split, in particular in Silicon Valley, the central place for startup
innovation.
