I think with most startups, even if they're successful, they don't deliver on the ownership and ROI you would expect for the time you invest. Several years ago

I think with most startups, even if they're successful, they don't deliver on the ownership and ROI you would expect for the time you invest. Several years ago, I joined a Midwestern startup just before the Series A as one of the first ten employees and the first mobile FT dev. I took a pay cut to join and was explicitly promised ownership and real "skin in the game." Nine months later, when they finally devised an options pool, I found I had been granted 0.065% and left immediately. It was like they'd stolen months of my work. Today, they have over two hundred employees and are probably headed to a large equity event. Another startup I joined raised a lot of money and paid almost market rates to some of the best developers in town. Their tech was some of the best in the city, but they pivoted and lost most of their developers when they didn't achieve product-market fit. They will probably only ever reach a tiny multiple compared to what their investors desired.