I thought that this was the norm too (that you have to hold off on any kind of agreement for compensation before the company has funding) but it's actually not

I thought that this was the norm too (that you have to hold off on any kind of agreement for compensation before the company has funding) but it's actually not the case at all. I just signed something with two friends last week for a side project that might take off and we put in clauses for how many shares of stock we'd get, depending on two conditions: 1) that we get at least a million in funding, and 2) that we each put in a certain amount of hours within the next two months. Although it's still an experiment in progress, I think it covers several bases well: we get a shot clock on the amount of work we all have to put in and by when, and as long as we do that, we'll all get varying pieces of a pie that doesn't even exist yet. Self-reinforcing.