That offer is worse than you think it is, for a variety of reasons. You're going to get diluted by every subsequent capital raise. The 0.3% you are being offe

That offer is worse than you think it is, for a variety of reasons. You're going to get diluted by every subsequent capital raise. The 0.3% you are being offered could be 0.2% or less by the time of exit. 0.2% of a $100 million acquisition is $200k. If your startup does not hit about a billion dollar valuation and then exit at that valuation you don't get a motivational amount of upside out of the equity. Additionally, there are a variety of ways where an exit can happen but your 0.2% ends up evaluating to 0%. One is liquidation preferences. (e.g. Let's say that your company takes $20 million of investment at a 2x liquidation preference, then you exit for $40 million, which your friend thinks you break even at. You will receive a check for $0. Your four founder friends may simultaneously receive checks from a side-pot, because they actually matter to getting the deal done.) Then there's just the numerically most common outcome, under which your startup never successfully exits and you took a pay-cut to work overly hard for a few years with no upside but a resume strongly suggesting to your next employer that you enjoy overwork and underpay. You're an intermediate engineer, at minimum. Salaries in the Valley for people in your bracket are creeping to $140k+ plus (smaller amounts of) equity. Seriously. They're DYING for people right now. Salaries for engineers in other big metropolitan areas, including Seattle, are going up as well. I guarantee you that you can find offers substantially more compelling in Seattle if you love living there. (Including remoting arrangements.)