Comment by hiAndrewQuinn

Well, I'd probably do it, and I think I'd even be good at it. But that's because I have my own "extreme position": I live in Finland and do not want to move back to my home country the US at the current time. My contribution would have to be fully remote, barring any company-paid trips.

"Make 70% as much as FAANG and work twice as hard (from your cozy bedroom in your weird winter wonderland country)" would therefore be a pretty effective sell to me if I genuinely believed in the product. I can feel myself itching for 2-3 years of reckless professionalism, where I eat, sleep and breathe code.

But that's a weird situation. So I guess my general answer is, "Reasonable people in weird situations might want to work as founding engineers."