How is that better for the employee, though? All that's happened is that the employee took a substantial pay cut in exchange for having serious risk placed on t

How is that better for the employee, though? All that's happened is that the employee took a substantial pay cut in exchange for having serious risk placed on them. Risk which is extremely tilted against them. This is also ignoring the fact that most companies will dilute the hell out of your options, so even if the company does make it, odds are you'll just have broken even from working for a regular company.