Absolutely - the only people who won't ask such questions are first-timers who are just in love with the idea of working for a startup (for whichever reason). A

Absolutely - the only people who won't ask such questions are first-timers who are just in love with the idea of working for a startup (for whichever reason). Ask. And don't let them snowball you with the whole, "We'll give you x shares" bit either. "x shares" is meaningless unless you know how many shares the company has outstanding.