It's also important to note that pre-seed/seed start-ups tend to have far more severe funding problems than, say, the Googles or Microsofts of the world (or rea

It's also important to note that pre-seed/seed start-ups tend to have far more severe funding problems than, say, the Googles or Microsofts of the world (or really any billion dollar, fully operating tech company). They typically can't afford to offer highly competitive outrageous traditional compensation. They're not always trying to offer as little as they can, sometimes it's all they have to offer and so that's what they put on the table. Rather than as little as they can, in that scenario it's in fact closer to the sane maximum that they can offer (without giving every employee 1/4 of the company, which is impossible). Microsoft won't be bankrupted by paying its next 500 employees a million dollars per year. Your little pre-seed/seed company will instantly vaporize if you try to compete on the basis of salary-based compensation with already successful tech companies. Hey look we've got $150,000 in the bank, we're still building our first product, and I'm offering you $500,000 per year in salary. What's the problem?