Comment by jonathanyc
Comment by jonathanyc a day ago
Depends on equity. Standard equity for founding engineers is definitely way too low; the chance of the company failing is still 100x higher than if you join as engineer #10, but you don't get 100x the equity (unlike the founders!).
Having joined as a founding engineer, recruited the team, built early product, presented demos and decks to investors, etc. you are correct. Unfortunately, the company failed and everyone's equity was worthless. The company was acquired in a fire sale for pennies on the dollar.
It was still fun though. And I'm still proud of what we built.