[ndimopoulos]

I have done this in the past. The reason behind it was to 'help' the company pay less to the recruitment agent and three months later I was to be compensated for the loss of income.

I agreed at the time and yes I was compensated three months later. The issue though was that the company I was working at the time was solid with a lot of capital, so I was not worried that much for not getting paid.

In my view you will have to have a bit of faith in people but you must also do your homework. If the startup is not going to exist in 6 months then don't even bother.

Gather all the evidence you can gather about the job and present that data to your friends/family and ask them their opinion. A fresh perspective can help you a lot.

What is a common practice is for organizations to try and get things for free from the employees. In other words as patio11 pointed out 'exploitation'.

I hope the above helps :)