He certainly wasn't able to pay what the author considers "a good engineer's salary" or even what HP was paying Woz as an entry level engineer. It was sweat equ

He certainly wasn't able to pay what the author considers "a good engineer's salary" or even what HP was paying Woz as an entry level engineer. It was sweat equity—exactly what the author complains about. The same was true of the earliest fb hires who are now fabulously wealthy. It's a common trend in startups.