[fredkbloggs]

I actually agree, but you have to pay people. That means you need to have enough cash -- either in startup capital or revenue -- to pay a fair market wage for the work you're getting. If you do, then absolutely that's how you should compensate your work force; it's better for everyone. But too many founders take $400k in seed money to start a business that's going to need 12 months and 4 people's time to reach revenue and another 18 months to break even. How are those founders supposed to make that work? The right answer is not to accept the $400k because he really needs more like $2m, but that's not what people are doing, so the extra money has to come from somewhere and that somewhere is the employees' pockets.