> Alternatively, the startup may not consider you to be a core team member, which is also an important takeaway. This is the most important sentence in the art

> Alternatively, the startup may not consider you to be a core team member, which is also an important takeaway. This is the most important sentence in the article. The answers to the questions may or may not help you predict the success of the startup, but the willingness of the people in charge to give you the answers, will surely give you some insights into their attitude to employees, which in turn will go a long way to predicting both what it will be like to work there, and whether they will pay out on your stock options if there is a successful exit.