Huge equity stakes. Huge. Not "align incentives" level stakes. "Google's chef has $26 million" stakes.
Well, it first seemed low to me as well.
But 0.01% of one million is ten thousand, which doesn't sound that bad. One million also seems low for a successful company. The same offer would give you ten billion at apple.
Disclaimer: I am not good at math and I don't understand stocks, equity etc. So maybe I am completely wrong.
1,000,000 USD * (0.01 / 100) = 100 USD, not 10,000 USD. The company would have to be worth 100M USD for 0.01% to be worth 10,000 USD.
> Disclaimer: I am not good at math [...]
Indeed ;-) But don't worry, many a great engineer has made worse mistakes when it comes to shifting the decimal point.
Fortunately my job does not require math skills, so at least I am no danger to society :D