[seltzered_]

this. I recently spent 4 months coding nights for a startup and got told it's going to be "hours for equity" - where they were giving themselves a high valuation and me effectively a "market rate converted to shares". I quickly ran off.

So far my opinion is that you need to increase your rate at 10x if it's for equity on the table, and the startup is bootstrapping. You're essentially a part-time cofounder in some ways because the product/business model can rapidly change depending on who you're working with, and you have essentially zero guarantee as to how you will know about the success of the business later on.

I also saw someone at a startup weekend earlier this year do the same idea, although he came off as a shady businessperson in the process, and had a very hard time explaining how it all worked.

Overall, I'm tired of business folks making this idea. Unless someone else outside the business does an official valuation, this doesn't really make sense. Also, business folks tend to think "hey, i'll rent a coder as 'hours for equity' then build just enough to pitch to investors, then find 'real people' while i have tons of leverage". Airbnb may be the rare exception where this worked out well, but that guy was paid in cash.