I'm not an expert in this, but most startups that have tried to recruit me in series A/B have such small ambitions (or more quantitatively, TAM) that I can unde

I'm not an expert in this, but most startups that have tried to recruit me in series A/B have such small ambitions (or more quantitatively, TAM) that I can understand why investors want higher stakes. If your TAM and desired market capture implies revenue of less than like $500 million the company is never going to IPO, just for example. Side note, as a potential employee (and a different kind of investor) that's the determining factor in whether or not the equity vs paycut gamble makes sense.