As others have said, no insult is intended. Have you worked for startups before? There is risk involved, especially earlier. Some of that is born by the VCs but

As others have said, no insult is intended. Have you worked for startups before? There is risk involved, especially earlier. Some of that is born by the VCs but some of it by the founders and employees. If you want a paycheck commensurate with your experience and talent, if you have responsibilities on the home front, then you should work with an established corporation. An early stage startup may not be for you. That by itself doesn't make their offer insulting. I worked for an early stage and got a 7 figure payout. My offer was less than yours. If you want to value this correctly, you should evaluate what you think the company's chances are and what your stock option is. The second is harder. You'll have to ask how many outstanding shares there are to figure out what your equity percentage is. Then you have to do some research to find out what's reasonable. None of this is insulting.