{"id":296778,"date":"2026-05-12T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/?p=296778"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:28:00","slug":"founders-guide-talent-capital-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/?p=296778","title":{"rendered":"The Founder&#8217;s Guide to Talent, Capital &amp; Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Founder&amp;apos;s Guide to Talent, Capital &amp; Compensation\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ssFgkZBz_og?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A strong startup compensation strategy isn&#8217;t just a financing exercise \u2014 it&#8217;s how founders attract the leaders who turn science into value. In this webinar, J. Thelander Consulting founder and CEO Jody Thelander was joined by Chris Garabedian, Joanna &amp; Ellen of <a href=\"https:\/\/jmsearch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">JM Search<\/a>, who co-lead the firm&#8217;s biopharma practice, to discuss how founders, boards, and investors structure equity and cash across every stage of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The cap table is a talent strategy, not just a financing tool.<\/strong> In early-stage biotech, cash alone rarely wins the best leaders \u2014 equity is what lets founders attract experienced talent who could command more elsewhere.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Build the option pool before you need it.<\/strong> The pool has to support the hiring plan, typically running 8\u201315%. A well-planned pool keeps every critical hire from becoming a fresh negotiation with the board and cap table.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Plan for dilution, and set expectations up front.<\/strong> Founders and key hires will be diluted; refresh grants are the lever to keep them incentivized. Getting the number right early makes those refreshes manageable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Want to see how your company&#8217;s compensation compares to real-time market data? Participate in the no-cost <a href=\"http:\/\/survey.jthelander.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thelander Private Company Compensation Survey<\/a> today \u2014 the more you give, the more you get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A strong startup compensation strategy isn&#8217;t just a financing exercise \u2014 it&#8217;s how founders attract the leaders who turn science into value. In this webinar, J. Thelander Consulting founder and CEO Jody Thelander was joined by Chris Garabedian, Joanna &amp; Ellen of JM Search, who co-lead the firm&#8217;s biopharma practice, to discuss how founders, boards, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-296778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-videos","tag-private-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}