Startups offering "equity compensation" is a scam in every case I've encountered it. The first is that if a company is not publicly traded the "value" of the eq

Startups offering "equity compensation" is a scam in every case I've encountered it. The first is that if a company is not publicly traded the "value" of the equity compensation is essentially just fiction - even if you have access to secondary markets, which you typically do not, due to the lack of any actual market interest. Of course the "secondary market" is also a very big "if", as numerous startups have a variety of restrictions on how equity can be transferred - either explicitly or because your comp is "options" in a non-public company. There is a real problem in the startup world where "equity compensation" is intentionally designed to be close to zero real value or cost. There have been numerous stories (on HN no less) over the years where startups have arranged to be bought in ways that result in the effective value of vested "equity" dropping to zero value for ICs, or founders/VC investors getting to cash out after funding rounds, but ICs not having those options. The notion that an IC is not investing financially in your startup because they didn't explicitly give you cash is BS - if you don't want to "dilute" the company, pay them cash. Anyway, given the background of startups screwing over early employees I am simply not interested in listening to such companies blaming other factors making it "hard" to IPO, until I see a real shift to ensure that ICs are properly compensated for their investments in the company pre-IPO.