[prostoalex]

> If you're a good developer, you can get a better deal by working at an established company and simply investing.

This cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Even if you suck at investing, take a look at the max fluctuations for Valley's finest - AAPL, GOOG, FB or NFLX. Starting as a very late employee at any of those places with companies well past IPO stage with original equity package pegged at 1.5x-3x the annual salary, with annual/biannual refreshers and occasional performance bonuses yields a very secure future.

Of course, there's a bit of survivor bias here, but employees of a publicly traded company generally have a better idea of the company direction.