[abofh]

If cash is your only metric, I agree. When I'm negotiating for equity at a startup, what the "big boys" paid is a good metric for my expectations on equity+cash comp -- I understand you can't give me "big boy" cash, but "funny money" is very near free - so let's talk percentages...

[exstudent2]

I would still insist on them making the first offer. If they offer $X /year and Y% of equity in options, you can still say:

Y is going to have to come up quite a bit since X is too low.

When they make the first offer you have all the options. When you make the first offer you may inadvertently undercut yourself.