Half a company is a real number.
On a standard build the crew holds 45%, the humans hold 45% and the pool holds 10%. These are the splits at Landing, the day the company forms after an unpaid trial called Orbit. The crew builds the first half of the company. The other half could be you.
The split depends on the work
The crew’s share follows how much it built and how much it keeps running. Humans split what is left after the pool, equally. A seat is one human role on a build. Below, the split for one seat per build.
Light
White slice: 10% for later hires
A focused tool with little to keep alive. Most of the work left is human work.
Standard
White slice: 10% for later hires
A full product with real users. Half the work is built, half is out there.
Heavy
White slice: 10% for later hires
Payments, insurance, voice or compliance. More to build, more to keep running.
Cut your own pizza
Pick a tier, one to four of the 8 seats, and a funding round. Every human seat gets the same slice, whichever role it is.
Each seat: 22.5% → ≈19.13% after a 15% round
- The crew
- Creator
- Closer
- Pool for later hires
- Investors
| Who | At Landing | After the round |
|---|---|---|
| The crew | 45% | 38.25% |
| Creator | 22.5% | ≈19.13% |
| Closer | 22.5% | ≈19.13% |
| Pool for later hires | 10% | 8.5% |
| Investors | 0% | 15% |
Investors buy new shares. Dilution is the drop in every holder’s percentage when a round issues those shares: nobody hands theirs over, so every slice shrinks by the same factor and the pizza gets bigger. A smaller slice of a bigger pizza is usually more pizza. The pool is usually topped up before a round, which dilutes existing holders, you and the crew included. The table does not model that.
How equity sticks
2 years, a 3-month cliff. The crew too.
A slice is granted at Landing and is on the cap table from then, unvested. It is earned month by month; month 3 brings the first vesting, the title and the vote. The crew is on the same clock and the same bar, so nobody gets paid early for showing up first. If a lead investor asks for longer vesting at a round, everyone moves to it together.
30 days, unpaid. One more Orbit if it’s close.
Orbit
Title: Resident
None. A trial for both sides.
Nothing granted yet
Day 30, or day 60 after a second Orbit
Landing
Title: Founding resident
The company is formed. Your slice is granted and on the cap table from now, unvested.
0% of your slice vested
Month 3
The co-founder bar
Title: Co-founder
Pass: the first 3 months vest at once. You take the co-founder title and get a vote on big decisions.
Miss: the residency ends. Nothing has vested.
12.5% of your slice vested
Months 4 to 24
Vesting
Title: Co-founder
The rest vests monthly.
100% of your slice vested
The co-founder bar
Checked at month 3. All three, or the residency ends.
- You did the role: the weekly hours and check-ins you agreed
- You hit your month-3 number, set for your role at Landing
- You signed the founder agreement
If someone leaves
You leave on good terms
Your call, with two weeks’ notice.
- Keeps
- Every vested share.
- Goes back
- Unvested shares, back to the pool for the next person in that seat.
The crew recalls you
The role isn’t done, after a written warning and two weeks to turn it around.
- Keeps
- Vested shares, unless the company buys them back at fair value.
- Goes back
- Unvested shares, back to the pool.
A sender parts ways
Their Orbit ends in part ways, at day 30 or day 60.
- Keeps
- The credit, and the 1% spark share (the slice paid for the idea) if the build lands without them.
- Goes back
- The reserved seat, which opens to strangers. No seat equity was granted yet.
You leave before month 3
Your call with two weeks’ notice, or the crew’s after a written warning.
- Keeps
- Your patches and flight log.
- Goes back
- The whole slice. Nothing has vested, so nothing sticks.
The tail
A company that has landed pays you 10% of the revenue from deals you closed while a resident, for 12 months after you leave. If the build stops before Landing, or the company closes, there is no tail. More on the tail
The spark share
The spark share is a 1% slice of the company, paid for the idea. It goes to someone who brings the idea through a Signal, a problem sent to the crew with proof that people want it. It comes out of the 10% pool, so the pool holds 9% for later hires and the split still adds up to 100. It is separate from the sender’s seat equity. It vests fully when the build lands, and an Orbit ending does not change it.
The company owns the work
Everything made for a build belongs to its company and stays there when anyone leaves, the crew included. During Orbit the company does not exist yet. Build w/ Strangers holds every asset in the build’s name, and moves all of it into the new company the week it lands. If the build stops, the assets stay with Build w/ Strangers. Read the full terms
How the crew makes money
From equity only. The crew charges no fees, no salary and no markup, and pays for infrastructure until the company has revenue.
The flight plan: how a landed company raises money
We eat when the pizza sells.
