I think you also need to look at where YOU are in your career, relative to other opportunities. Out of school, I took some positions with low salaries and some

I think you also need to look at where YOU are in your career, relative to other opportunities. Out of school, I took some positions with low salaries and some (now worthless) equity at startups becuase I was fresh out of school, had low living costs, and saw it as a good opportunity to build a diverse skill set that would help me further along in my career. Additionally, the economy was just starting to tank so it wasn't exactly like there was a plethora of good positions available anyways. Looking back on it, it's easy to say that I made a "bad" decision (e.g I should have seen the writing on the wall and realized these startups were going to tank), but I'd probably do the same thing over again, for a few reasons. Although the startups ultimately failed, I was still paid enough to have my own apartment, cover my expenses, etc. On top of that, the "jack of all trades" role I took on in these startups allowed me to pick up a lot of other skills (sysadmin, design, etc) that I wouldn't have been exposed to had I been paid market and chose to go the corporate path. I also made some invaluable connections that I still rely on and am in contact with to this day. Now that I have a few years more of experience working at both startups and nonstartups, it's a much tougher decision overall. As tferris pointed out, the opportunity cost of giving up a portion of salary for a tiny slice of equity is much higher as an experienced developer with a broad skill set. Interestingly enough, working at a startup in my earlier years out of school played a vital role in acquiring that skillset. So, you really need to other factors like the founding team, traction, market, etc when considering a startup as well as both where you're at and where you're trying to go in your career.