Talent & Equity.
People and ownership — compensation, equity, ESOPs, and building the team behind the numbers.
Talent and equity is about the people behind the numbers and the ownership that aligns them — compensation, equity, and ESOP design, plus the work of building finance teams that scale. Equity is the strangest line on the balance sheet and the most contested in any boardroom: founders, investors, and employees hold different claims and different information, and dilution quietly reshapes ownership every round.
Get it right and equity aligns the whole team with the long-term outcome; get it wrong and it breeds dilution, confusion, and resentment — usually from opacity about value, vesting, and what a grant is really worth. Strategy of Finance covers ESOP design, comp benchmarks, and how to build a finance team that hires ahead of the breakpoints rather than catching up to the last stage.
Essays 20
Vulnerability is a grace reserved for the wealthy Talent & Equity How to succeed in finance Modern Finance Function 10 reasons CFOs should feature on podcasts Talent & Equity How to hire a head of procurement Procurement / Spend Cap table as editorial asset — Peter Walker on Carta's insights function Podcast Summary Starve your distractions, feed your focus Modern Finance Function The power of professional relationships Talent & Equity The art of accelerated career growth Talent & Equity RRR: Respect, Recognize, Reward Talent & Equity A roadmap to becoming a CFO Talent & Equity Resumes in the LinkedIn era Talent & Equity The CEO-CFO match Talent & Equity How to recruit a CFO in emerging tech Talent & Equity The best CFOs work for the best CFOs — Dan Himple Podcast Summary The CFO diamond — Karan Bhople on the dispassionate chair Podcast Summary I want to be a CFO — Joy Mbanugo on the deliberate path Podcast Summary Test match to T20 — Ananth Avva on the leaking CFO chair Podcast Summary What you can control — KJ Tjon Podcast Summary Don't just BE. BELONG. Talent & Equity Chief Questions Officer Talent & Equity
Episodes 3
EP 023 Peter Walker Carta EP 023 - Data, Insights, Funding Winter, Compensation & Marketing with Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta Apr 12, 2024 1 hr EP 017 Daniel Himple Hays EP 017 - CFO Hiring + Comp Demystified with Dan Himple, Senior Finance Recruiter at Hays Jan 22, 2024 1 hr 42 min EP 003 KJ Tjon Kaleyra, Nubia Brand, Volcon EP 003 - Focus on What You Can Control with KJ Tjon Apr 21, 2023 59 min
Related questions
Reviewed- What is an ESOP and how does it work?
- An ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) is the pool of equity a company sets aside to grant employees, usually as options that vest over time — the mechanism for giving the team a real stake in the outcome they're building. Grants typically vest over four years with a one-year cliff, and the pool gets sized and topped up at each funding round. Designed well, it aligns employees with long-term value; designed carelessly, it creates dilution, confusion, and resentment when people don't understand what they actually hold.
- How should a company think about equity versus cash compensation?
- As a trade-off the candidate is pricing, whether you frame it well or not. Cash is certain and immediate; equity is leveraged and illiquid — worth a lot if the company wins, nothing if it doesn't. Early stage leans equity-heavy (less cash, more upside); later stage shifts toward cash as the option's risk-adjusted value firms up. The companies that get this right are transparent about value, vesting, and dilution rather than hiding behind a big notional number.
- Why does equity cause so much friction in companies?
- Because it's the most contested line on the cap table and the least understood by the people who hold it. Founders, investors, and employees all have different claims and different information, dilution quietly reshapes ownership every round, and most grantees can't translate '10,000 options' into what it might one day be worth. The friction comes from opacity — strike prices, preferences, and dilution that aren't explained. Carta's Peter Walker is a strong listen on what real comp and ownership data show.
- How do you build a finance team that scales with the company?
- Hire ahead of the breakpoints, not behind them, and design roles around where the company is going rather than where it's been. Early on, a few generalists who can do everything; as you scale, specialists for FP&A, accounting, treasury, and controls, with systems that let the team grow without headcount growing one-for-one. The trap is staffing to today's volume and being permanently a quarter behind — scaling finance is about anticipating the next stage, not catching up to the last one.