[dchichkov]

You are right, and yet, when the salary had been established it should be possible to talk about trading somebody's salary (money) for equity. And compare that deal with the deal that the investors investing money get. As it is possible to take that 30k/year salary and invest is elsewhere, on the terms that investors investing money get (convertible debt, valuation cap, etc).

Thinking about it as money allows one to make a prudent investment decision.

I'm actually surprised that YC people haven't streamlined that process of trading early-employee salaries for convertible debt. Current situation with early-employees equity really screws up a lot of early employees and in my opinion poisons the startup atmosphere in the Bay Area quite a bit.