But is this true relative to the reward? It of course depends greatly on the individual. A senior SE who walks away from an offer at Google or Netflix to work

But is this true relative to the reward? It of course depends greatly on the individual. A senior SE who walks away from an offer at Google or Netflix to work for a startup could be forgoing as much as 100k a year in salary. Five years in that dev might have banked a half mil. Yes the founders are giving up a lot too bit the equity they receive may be vastly higher. It all depends on the numbers but adjusted for reward and equity? Yeah by that measurement I'd say its certainly possible that an early engineer is taking on the worst risk to reward ratio. Lastly keep in mind that a founder who does not have strong tech skills may not be giving up as much in potential salary even if he or she works for "free". Again this all depends on the individual.