Will an employee share scheme mean I lose control of my company?

Not if the plan is designed with that in mind. There are several well-established ways to keep control:

• use share options that are exercisable only on an exit, since options carry no voting or dividend rights until they are exercised;
• create a separate class of shares for employees, which may carry no votes and pay dividends at directors’ discretion;
• include provisions requiring employees to offer their shares for sale when they leave.

Protecting the value you have built while still rewarding your people is one of the most common design problems we solve.