>Good sales people will want to get paid, unless they are insiders who know they can make it work and just want to suck the equity from you and try to make the

>Good sales people will want to get paid, unless they are insiders who know they can make it work and just want to suck the equity from you and try to make the startup theirs. I mostly agree with you but the above point is very cynical. The skilled salesperson that OP needs may well recognize that they want to take the company from 0-10MM in sales per year, but that they may be unable to help take the company from 10MM-100MM a year in sales. In that case, knowing that you are likely to need to leave a company you helped build, asking for equity makes sense.