Equity is monopoly money and or a lottery ticket. As someone whose spent nearly 13 years in the startup world my advice is this. Expect your cash comp to be yo

Equity is monopoly money and or a lottery ticket. As someone whose spent nearly 13 years in the startup world my advice is this. Expect your cash comp to be your only comp and negotiate cash comp separately from equity. Most startups fail... and even those who do succeed? The VC's get first payout... then founders... then maybe what's left for you... Also there many other situations a company can pull to invalidate or take equity away from employees (think Zynga). There is alot to gain in working at startup, just dont think the equity is the main reason to.