[ErikAugust]

Not many people are going to totally ignore their opportunity costs to join as a "founder-ish" engineer at a startup.

I have taken a role like this before, but when I did so, I was making a lateral move from a compensation standpoint. This is without factoring in any expected value of equity (because there was none).

[duxup]

I'm willing to concede the highest paid engineers are almost by definition doing their opportunity costs math.

I'm willing to also bet that most people do not do a lot of opportunity costs math.

But as your example points out, like mine, maybe this whole idea of top paid engineers not getting paid, or even taking those jobs isn't a thing as much as we might imagine.

"Uber ... but for walking your cat" might offer far less than 220k, but they also don't need that guy might be offering more lateral move type people / money.

[jvanderbot]

100% agree. I'm happy to trade hypothetical equity in one startup for same salary and hypothetical equity in a brand new startup, if the new startup has just plain a cooler founder, or tech, or broader opportunity. As an early founding engineer, my impact is much much higher as well.