Compensation, culture, and cap tables with Yuri Sagalov, General Catalyst

About this episode

Yuri Sagalov discusses essential strategies for early-stage founders regarding equity, cap tables, and compensation.

Build Mode is back. This season we’re breaking down what it really takes to build a world-class founding team starting with your cap table, equity structures, and startup compensation strategy. We kick off with Yuri Sagalov, managing director at General Catalyst and former founder, YC partner, and seed investor at Wayfinder Ventures. Yuri has worked with hundreds of pre-seed and seed-stage startups, and he shares practical advice on how early-stage founders should think about startup equity, cap table design, investor selection, and compensation structures from day one. He breaks down: The 3 types of investors (and which one to avoid) Why your cap table is part of your team The 20–25% seed dilution rule How to split equity with a co-founder How to talk to early employees about risk and compensation No matter where you are in your startup journey, this episode will help you get the incentive structure right from the beginning. Chapters: 00:00 - Why your first hires deserve more equity 00:31 - Meet Yuri Sagalov (YC → General Catalyst) 02:12 - Your cap table is part of your team 02:50 - The 3 types of investors (avoid this one) 05:02 - How to split equity with a co-founder 07:55…

People in this episode

Guest: Yuri Sagalov

Topics covered

• startup compensation
• cap table design
• equity structures
• investor selection
• founding team

Keywords

• startup
• equity
• cap table
• compensation
• investors
• founders
• seed-stage

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: General Catalyst, Wayfinder Ventures, YC

More episodes of Build Mode

• Best of Build Mode: Scaling Company Culture · June 11, 2026 · 18 min
• Best of Build Mode: The Founder Mistakes That Cost Time, Money, and Growth · June 4, 2026 · 27 min
• Best of Build Mode: Cofounders, Conflict and Compatibility · May 28, 2026 · 21 min
• The 7-Failure Rule: How Forethought AI Found Product-Market Fit with Co-Founder Deon Nicholas · May 14, 2026 · 46 min
• Maintaining Momentum and Morale During the Long Road to FDA Approval with Robhy Bustami, BioticsAI · April 30, 2026 · 32 min
• Don't stop hiring humans. Stop hiring the wrong humans with Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Artisan · April 23, 2026 · 37 min