The deal, as I see it, is that in a start-up you work extra hard for moderate pay, and in return get a chance at a big payout if the company succeeds in a big w

The deal, as I see it, is that in a start-up you work extra hard for moderate pay, and in return get a chance at a big payout if the company succeeds in a big way. There's nothing wrong about that, in principle. But I wonder how the math works out. It might be possible to calculate the pay per hour of extra work for employees in startups. But some of the parameters would be hard to get data on. How many more hours of work per week? For how many years? For how much less pay? With how much chance of a big win? And the big win gets you how much?