Ask HN: What was your experience joining a pre-seed round startup?

A small pre-seed startup reached out about an opportunity. Met with the CEO to learn more. There is a co-founder but neither of them are technical. They have an MVP with some customers. Product is interesting but in a competitive market.

The current team of developers/engineers are all moonlighting on contract until presumably the company secures seed funding and can hire full time. There are talks with investors but no estimate of when they are ready to hire full time.

The contract pay is reasonable, paid monthly. There are also promises of stock options and great wealth if successful, taken with a grain of salt. But I don't really have the expected 20-30 hours a week to moonlight. And CEO was transparent that he is actively hiring for people with no work-life balance.

Has anybody made a leap like this? What made you go for it? How common is this story in the startup world?

All I see is a bunch of red flags but hoping to get a sanity check.