The value of options has nothing to do with unicorn status. If you join an existing unicorn, especially a public company, then your options are no better than

The value of options has nothing to do with unicorn status. If you join an existing unicorn, especially a public company, then your options are no better than a roulette wheel—the valuation already has captured a large amount of savvy knowledge about the future of the company. Also, because it is so big you won't be able to move the needle anyway. The point of options is to take on some risk in exchange for bigger reward. To do this you can't come in with an employee mentality of wanting to get a market salary and have a lot of security, you need to start thinking like a business owner. It's easiest to do this as a founder where you have true control, but it's also possible to do so as an early employee / late co-founder, but in that case you have convince the founders/board of your value. Taking a lower salary in exchange for more equity is a concrete demonstration that you are thinking about the company's burn rate, and that you believe in your ability to help the company succeed. None of this is to justify founder's taking advantage of early employees, by all means stick up for yourself and know your value, but recognize that a computer programmer is not worth $100k a priori, you can spend all your time building things which are worthless. The trick with a company is figuring out how to turn that energy into business value. Founders take on the biggest risk of making that happen, and likewise they get the greatest control. Options with a vesting cliff are the mechanism for realizing that value creation, and rewarding an effort over time. Your ability to succeed with options will certainly be some amount of luck, but to maximize your chances you need an appetite for risk and the desire to build a great company rather than join a great company.