> Few recruiting messages are as powerful (when true) as “the world needs this, it won’t happen any time soon if we don’t do it, and we are much less likely to

> Few recruiting messages are as powerful (when true) as “the world needs this, it won’t happen any time soon if we don’t do it, and we are much less likely to succeed if you don’t join.” This line would work on me if it the founder(s) and I were in the same boat. But when you have 20% and you won't even tell me what percent of the company my X shares are worth, your pitch only makes me thing "I'm less likely to be rich if you don't slave away for a really long time (and I might be a few million if we're modestly successful, and in that scenario you probably won't get anything)". When startup equity distribution becomes more like a pirate ship, where everybody gets X, and the captain gets 2X, then I'll buy into the "we're all in this together" pitch.