Sounds like an awful position. I was in a similar place recently. I was second or third engineer (depends if you count a contractor) in a very successful startu

Sounds like an awful position. I was in a similar place recently. I was second or third engineer (depends if you count a contractor) in a very successful startup when I found that my equity wasn't as promised. I pretty easily found a job where I'd likely make more as cash even if the startup gets acquired for $500 million. You shouldn't tie yourself to a situation where empty promises are all you're working for. I know exactly how it sucks to move on from something you built. Obviously, you could just propose an equal dilution of everybody in the pool. Or come to them with an outside offer and see what happens.