The prevalent advice here is don't invest in individual stocks, even though in general you have a ton of information on a public company from financials to trac

The prevalent advice here is don't invest in individual stocks, even though in general you have a ton of information on a public company from financials to track record of key players to good market and product info. With startups it's suddenly OK to invest often half of your potential money into a stock surrogate with none of the above. There are many reasons to join a startup striking it rich from equity is def not a good one.