You promised an advisor equity. Now put it in writing.

A 30-minute call with Grady Andersen, startup advisor and founder of Cairnul, an AI agent that runs your advisor paperwork for you. Saving you a ton of money and stress on a Securities Lawyer.

Book a callNot ready to talk? Join the waitlist instead.
The part nobody warns you about

A handshake equity deal is easy. Unwinding one is not.

Nobody built this path for you. The templates on page one of Google don't say how much equity is normal, the tools are built for companies three stages ahead of you, and the correct answer bills by the hour. So most advisor deals stay a handshake. Here's what a handshake can cost:

Equity that never stops vesting
A grant with no schedule and no cliff means an advisor who disappears in month two keeps the whole thing.
A tax clock you didn't know started
If the grant is restricted stock, an election is due within 30 days of the grant. Missing it can cost your advisor real money in tax.
A promise your next investor finds
A verbal 1% surfaces in diligence as a question you can't answer: who owns what, since when, on what terms.

None of it is hard once someone shows you the order. That's what the call is for.

Pick a time

Leave the call knowing exactly what to send.

Free, 30 minutes, on your schedule.

We'll ask three quick questions when you book: whether you've incorporated, whether you've promised equity yet, and which state your advisor lives in.

The plan

Three steps to an advisor deal done right

1
Book the call
Free, 30 minutes, on your schedule
You are here
2
Walk through your advisor deal with Grady
Which agreement, how much equity, when vesting starts
Next
3
Send the right agreement, knowing what comes next
Signatures, vesting, the tax election and cap table, in order
Next

What the agent does, and what you do

Cairnul's agent
Reads the documents you've already signed and uploaded
Drafts what comes next, prefilled from what it knows about your company
Tracks every cliff, vesting milestone, and anniversary
Tells you what needs your signature, and when
Keeps your cap table current as each grant vests
You
1
Upload
2
Review
3
Sign
4
File
That's the whole job.
You're not doing the paperwork. You're approving it.

The agent doesn't eliminate the need for securities counsel. It greatly reduces it, because the routine paperwork stops needing a lawyer. And when something is a real legal judgment call, it says so instead of guessing.

The product

Every advisor grant, run as a checklist

This is what Cairnul tracks for one advisor's grant: seven steps from setting the terms to an updated cap table, and the agent tells you whose move it is at every one.

Granting 0.5% to M. Reyes
Step 4 of 7
1
You set the grant terms
0.5%, two-year vesting, three-month cliff
Done
2
They confirm their role
What they'll do, and how often
Done
3
They sign the agreement
The industry-standard template, unmodified
Done
4
You sign the agreement
Your signature makes it binding
You are here
5
The agent hands you the tax election draft
Due 30 days from the grant, if restricted stock. You file it
Next
6
Vesting starts tracking
Three-month cliff, then monthly for two years
Next
7
The agent updates your cap table
No spreadsheet, nothing to remember
Next
Product screens illustrative.

Already started?

Already shook hands on an advisor deal, or signed one? Upload it. Vesting, cliffs, and anniversaries get tracked from the day you signed, not the day you found us.

Plain English

What a FAST actually is

1
It's the standard, and it's free

The FAST is the Founder/Advisor Standard Template. It's the accepted form for early-stage advisor grants, and the Founder Institute released a new version of it in July 2026.

2
It covers the three things a handshake doesn't

What the advisor does, how much equity they get, and how it vests: over two years, with a three-month cliff. Equity, not cash.

The work
What they commit to doing, and how often
The equity
A percentage matched to that commitment, not a guess
The vesting
Two years, three-month cliff. They earn it as they show up
3
The FAST is the promise. The stock moves separately

The equity itself is usually common stock, the same class you hold, granted as a restricted stock award (an RSA). A short stock purchase agreement papers the transfer, and that grant is what starts the tax clock below.

4
Signing starts a 30-day tax clock

If the grant is restricted stock, there's an 83(b) election due within 30 days of the grant, and missing it can cost your advisor real money in tax they didn't expect. Almost nobody mentions that part.

Keep reading
What is a FAST?What is vesting?What is an 83(b) election?
Book a callStill free. Still 30 minutes.
The ground rules

What's real, and what we're not

Founder Institute FAST V3, unmodified. The current standard for early-stage advisor grants, released July 2026.
We don't have a database of advisors for hire. You bring your own people.
We never file for you. The agent prepares, prefills, and reminds; you submit.
We're not your lawyer or your accountant. We have our own securities counsel, and anything specific to your situation goes to yours.
Grady Andersen
Who you'd be talking to

Grady Andersen

I'm Grady Andersen, a startup advisor and the founder of Cairnul. I've spent the last six years working with idea-stage founders, and two of them advising on exactly this: SAFEs, advisor agreements, and the paperwork nobody warns you about. I'm building Cairnul because I got tired of watching first rounds get run in a Google Doc.

I'm also raising my own round on this product, so I'm running the same paperwork you are.

On the call I'll walk you through how this normally works and what the sequence looks like. I'm not a lawyer, so anything specific to your situation is a question for counsel, and I'll tell you when you've hit one.

Startups I've advised
OrbiterFantasyCasterKeepCoinMangoBIQuick OrganicsHeyAnonEnvisageBarterBinSAPIANTVirosoMade360KinkyRabbitiMe