[mpk]

You'll be the first true hire [...]

Hired people work for salary. The kind of people who qualify either command high salaries or shares.

Other than that it sounds like a nice job for a 20-year old hacker wanting to get some experience and buff up that resume in the process.

[neilc]

You'll become part of the founding team; together we'll architect and realize Sproost's vision.

Suggests that a considerable amount of equity compensation could be involved.

But yeah, when they said "first hire", that was my thought as well -- they basically want a technical cofounder / chief architect sort of person.