> 28. Keep salaries low and equity high. > 94. Have a table in your offer letters that shows how much the stock you’re granting a new hire could be worth in v

> 28. Keep salaries low and equity high. > 94. Have a table in your offer letters that shows how much the stock you’re granting a new hire could be worth in various scenarios. Notwithstanding the point that trying to predict what stock options could be worth is generally a pointless exercise at early-stage startups and may not be advisable from a legal standpoint, if you really believe the best case figures you're likely to show or want to show in such a table, you would almost always have an incentive to minimize the amount of equity doled out. A company that prefers to treat equity as an immediate substitute for salary either a) believes that its equity is cheap, b) is cash constrained or c) has concerns about its cash position going forward. These are all red flags for someone considering joining the company as an employee.