Deepwater partner's guide to startup advisor equity: up to 2% for hands-on, a fraction of a percent for the rest

On October 22, dunkhippo33, an investor at Deepwater, posted a long tweet thread walking first-time founders through how to allocate equity to advisors. He opened by flagging a common misconception: first-time founders often assume landing big-name advisors will hugely boost the company, but in reality most investors completely ignore your advisor list, because the people doing the real work aren't the advisors—unless the advisor is extremely famous.

Confirmed

• dunkhippo33 splits advisors into two categories and argues their compensation should be entirely different
• The first type is "hands-on" advisors: deeply involved in GTM, tapping their own networks to help with sales, or building solutions with core technical expertise. He sees these as effectively part-time employees deserving substantial equity—0.1%-2% depending on importance, priced similarly to employees, with vesting up to 2-4 years
• The second type is "advice-giving" advisors: those who only hop on a monthly or quarterly call to offer advice—the norm for most advisors. These should get only a few tenths of a percent; the most he's seen is around 0.1%, with vesting up to 2 years. He stresses these are rough market benchmarks
• He warns founders not to give away too much equity, and never equity without vesting—those precious shares should be reserved for employees

Why it matters

• Good advisors can genuinely open doors, but first-time founders routinely overvalue big-name advisors and risk diluting an already limited equity pool early on
• The thread provides actionable market reference numbers (percentages and vesting terms), giving founders direct anchors for advisor negotiations

2026-10-22 ~ 2026-10-22 · 7 related posts

• [source] Investors ignore your advisor list — here's how to split equity between the two advisor types — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• Investors mostly ignore your list of advisors, says founder — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• Hands-on advisors are part-time employees — pay them real equity — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• [source] How much equity should startup advisors get? 0.1-2% with up to 4-year vesting — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• Most advisors just hop on a call quarterly — and deserve only a fraction of a percent — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• The most common advisor equity number: ~0.1% vesting over 2 years — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22
• [source] Don't give advisors equity without vesting — save it for employees — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-22