When I was in the south it was very common to only get paid salary and insurance. The one company that did give me equity gave me $10k. There's nothing wrong wi

When I was in the south it was very common to only get paid salary and insurance. The one company that did give me equity gave me $10k. There's nothing wrong with what the founders did. That said, I came from Texas. When we started seeing a flood of people from high income regions moving to Texas and driving up home (and other area costs) I realized high inflation states had beat the system. People that lived decently there were royalty when they moved to Texas. I eventually moved to California, and my RSU plan is what made my savings go from $0 to on track within 3 years. If I can say anything to founders in the Midwest and South: pay RSUs. It's the difference between retirement and spending your entire life working.