Startup Equity Grant: Start With the $56,829 Median

You are about to sign a new-hire equity offer, and the first number you see is a median. Trap: you call the offer good or bad from that one number. Rule: compare the grant to the peer group that matches your role, company, function, market, and timing.

Equitybee's 2026 dataset put the median recent new-hire grant at $56,829, the value of the grant on the date it was made. The 2026 grant report covered 9,042 new-hire grants from 2,438 startups. Use that median as a starting point, not the answer.

A single median hides your real peer group

A median tells you where the middle offer sits. It does not tell you where your offer should sit, because a new-hire grant is not a promotion grant and the person, company, and timing change the fair number.

Seniority is the first cut. Individual contributors had a median grant of $24,000, while VP and C-suite employees had $346,580, a 14.4 times spread. That gap is large enough to make an all-employee median too broad for a specific offer.

Stage changes the risk, the valuation, and the cash the company can support. Seed and Series A companies had a median grant of $33,442, while Series D and later companies had $75,000, a 2.2 times gap.

Function can move the number as well. AI and Data companies showed a median new-hire grant of $70,328 in the 2026 report. Once seniority, stage, function, geography, and grant year are accounted for, AI and Data new-hire grants were estimated to run 27% above other industries.

Geography and grant year are the quieter variables. A grant made in one market or one funding year may look different from one made elsewhere or earlier.

Run the five-slice test before you sign

The five-slice test is the part to keep: line up your grant with the relevant seniority level, funding stage, job function, location, and grant year, then check its fair-market value on the grant date against the median for comparable grants.

• Seniority: compare your offer to the median for your seniority level, not the all-employee median.
• Stage: compare to the median for the company's funding stage.
• Function: compare within your department, especially if your field is AI and Data.
• Geography: compare to employees in your market, not a national median.
• Grant year: compare to grants made in the same year.

Run the slices in order, because each step removes a different source of error. If one slice is missing, the comparison is too broad and the median can mislead you.

Ask for numbers that make the test work

You cannot run the test on a percentage alone. Ask for the number of shares, the exercise price (the price you pay to buy each share), and the grant-date fair market value. With those numbers, you can calculate the grant value and compare it to the median for your peer group.

When the company will not share the grant-date value, ask for the numbers behind the share value. Do not accept a verbal range. A written offer should show the grant size, the vesting schedule, and the date used for the value.

When the company says the grant is standard, ask for the peer group it used. The vesting schedule matters because it changes when you actually own the equity.

Let the result change the offer

Near the median for your peer group, the offer is in the market. Below it, ask what would bring it into range. Above it, do not assume the company will match that generosity for future grants, because the next offer may be smaller.

Equitybee introduced Equitybee Benchmark, a free tool for US startup employees to compare grants by role, seniority, department, and company stage. Use it to find the matching slice, then put the offer on a whiteboard and check each part of the test.