There is a CTO, co-founder and I don't think he is that much better off then I am except for the fact the the risk/reward equation is a lot better for him.
This is a key point. If you three all started from a coffee shop, why are they co-founders and you are the first employee? Even if the other two persons worked on the company a few month before you started, after 4 years, you'd been there (and hopefully contributed) 90% of the founders time and contribution.
Startup life is hard, and it's a lot easier to sacrifice with significant ownership and a sense of purposes.
Well I didn't come up with the idea and I waited until they could raise some seed because I needed a salary. I did build the product from scratch, in fact that's the only thing out in the market currently. I didn't care about titles. And I didn't know about equity. I just joined because I wanted to solve the problem.
I haven't had a direct conversation about this yet. But other colleagues have. He is aware of the problem and has tried having some conversations but that haven't gone down well. The alpha is too dominant.