This. Interests cannot be aligned if they get equity. That changes the game completely. I run a SAAS and some of our very early customers have become almost a

This. Interests cannot be aligned if they get equity. That changes the game completely. I run a SAAS and some of our very early customers have become almost a sales person for our company. They recommend us all the time to people they think could be good fit for us and they also are more than happy to be a reference for new prospects. We are happy to give them additional discounts, free customizations (our saas is customizable) etc and keep them happy. I would focus on making this early customer very happy and keeping the focus on solving their problem. It seems like they are trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and that would mess things up. Never mix customer and equity.