[dunpeal]

Your equity isn't "incredibly generous" for a startup in your position, where you are the 2nd engineering hire, the team is still a handful of engineers, and you're likely going to see more dilution (unless you close shop before).

Practically, from what you describe (startup not doing very well after 5+ years of active development), I'd be very surprised if you see any serious money from that 1.8%.

> He doesn't believe we're in a position to go to the board and make any changes to stock compensation at this time.

The board isn't some harsh unreasonable committee. They would quickly grant you equity if they thought it was important enough to do so.

This really is a BS excuse. He basically told you "I don't want to give you more equity, and I'm going to blame it on some external entity rather than own up to it".