I joined as employeee #1 as a friend of a friend (we were friendly acquaintances for a year or two before). I think the relationship helped get us to a good wor

I joined as employeee #1 as a friend of a friend (we were friendly acquaintances for a year or two before). I think the relationship helped get us to a good working rhythm right away, but as many founders do he had slightly misrepresented some facts about how far along the company was and was slightly greedy with equity, so I left about 6 months in when factoring the newfound facts into the expected value equation showed me that I'd be better off back on a regular W2. It's been 4 years and the company is still around, but as I expected it's quite a bit behind where it would need to be for my personal economics to have made sense (and that's still assuming an exit that may not come). Our relationship has cooled a bit but remains friendly, I happily served as a reference/expert on a customer call and wish the best for the company.