SU - Option pools and founder % on Flickr

Investors already know this. Venture capital will always call for the creation of an option pool, and the option pool is always dilutive to the pre-money (founders) rather than the post money. That is, if they are creating an option pool that's going to be 10% of the fully-diluted capital stock, and they buy 30% of the company (on a fully-diluted basis), they will get 30% and founders will get 60%. That's just the way things work.

useful bit of math