[throwaway5752]

I disagree with you on different grounds. Your points downthread about how it's not a risk are on the nose. No stigma for being part of a startup (the opposite) and even startup benefits are pretty great these days. This isn't ramen/buddies closet sort of work any more.

I'd say the reason you want a strong equity package is a question of alignment and incentive, though. Ideally this person is going to be a VP of Engineering for you someday if you scale up and on top of that needs to have architect + SRE + hacker + sysadmin skills. On top of that, you'll probably want them to make similar sacrifices that you (as the founder) are making to get the business off the ground. It shouldn't be founder equity, and maybe the standard 4 yr + cliff structure isn't right for it, but you probably want this person to have a substantial vested interest in the success of the company.