An option pool is the block of company shares set aside for future equity grants to employees, advisors, and new hires, carved out of the cap table before or during a fundraising round.
Investors typically require the pool to be created, or topped up, immediately before their investment closes, which means the dilution from the pool comes entirely out of existing shareholders (founders and earlier investors), not the new money coming in. A 10-15% pool is common for an early-stage round.
The size of the pool is a real negotiating point, not a formality: a bigger pool required upfront means more dilution for the founders today, even though the shares in it haven't been granted to anyone yet. Worth sizing it against an actual hiring plan rather than agreeing to whatever number is proposed first.
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