[adovenmuehle]

If you were trading salary for equity and the startup fails you're out that. You're also out time which you could have been advancing at a different company.

However, because working at a startup is gambling, you have to treat it as such. If you can't live with losing out on salary you could've made at another job, you shouldn't work at a startup.

[tlipcon]

Early in your career, trading salary for experience is a smart move. In my case, I turned down a Google offer to work at a startup after college (taking a 15%-30% pay cut) and my equity ended up being worth less than I paid to exercise it. But, in the two years that I was there, I learned way more than I would have at Google, and got a much bigger network, both of which helped immensely when I interviewed for my next position.

I agree, working for peanuts is dumb. But 20%-40% less than what Google offers is hardly poverty -- it's still much more than what most non-engineers make out of college.

[twelve45]

Second this. Right after school I passed on a higher-paying job to work at a startup. It didn't do well, but I learned a whole lot about what is involved in running a startup correctly, from the perspective of a mid to late stage employee.

Forward many years, and I have my own thing going and I appreciate the failed startup experience because it gives me some framework on which to base my decisions. And I hope I'm doing things better... (and that a few years from now that junior dev we just hired will do a better job with his/her company!)