Unless you have significant equity, you need to immediately negotiate higher pay or leave. * $500/week is ridiculous. You are way underpaid. * There is no ups

Unless you have significant equity, you need to immediately negotiate higher pay or leave. * $500/week is ridiculous. You are way underpaid. * There is no upside for you: * Say the company is successful and starts generating a lot of revenue: you'll have to crawl your way from $500/week to a decent salary. New employees will immediately make more than you. * If the company is sold, the founder gets rich and you get nothing. You've accomplished significant milestones: you've taken a product from idea to production, and you are now managing a team. Play this up in your next interviews, you've earned it. Get yourself a better position with better pay, in line with the skills you've honed and proven over the last year. Btw, I've founded 3 startups so I'm very familiar with what it's like to pay people little. In every case the counter to the low pay was significant equity - if the startup makes it, you get a share of the prize. If you're not getting equity, you're getting used, plain and simple.