I personally know someone who has worked at a company for the past 3 years, making ~100k base for <1% equity (4 year vesting). When he joined the company, every

I personally know someone who has worked at a company for the past 3 years, making ~100k base for <1% equity (4 year vesting). When he joined the company, everyone knew it would IPO in a few years. The company recently IPOed. He made the equivalent of $400k/year (base + 3 year vesting of equity), which is AFAIK more than what his friends who went to Google/FB/etc. make. Of course, this involved taking on a small risk that the company would not end up IPOing. But everyone in the industry knew it was on its way up, and the company was already mid-sized when he joined.