Not only they expect talent to work for free, they also expect employees to invest money in their startup: "We will consider your application anyway, but we prefer our co-founders have some "skin in the game." Really?
Look at CTO positions advertised on workinstartups.com
"15 years experience as CTO, must be top coder in XYZ, willing to work on this full time and make at least a minimum investment amount, 0.8% share option"
Lots of deluded people out there, lots and lots and lots of them.
This is not delusion, more like a rational exploitation. Given the 'moonshot' nature of the project and the fact they are planning an IPO, that's a negative signal, sounds like a potential pump-n-dump scheme. Somebody should run a good background check on them.
"15 years experience as CTO, must be top coder in XYZ, willing to work on this full time and make at least a minimum investment amount, 0.8% share option"
Lots of deluded people out there, lots and lots and lots of them.