> fairy farts and equity dreams.

If your attitude towards the startup is that cynical, then you shouldn't be working for a startup. Go to bigco where they will pay you lots for doing nothing.

Startups are difficult and need people who want to work hard and sacrifice in exchange for greenfield technical development, high responsibility, and high upside. By all means ask for more equity. But a startup is about the future, not about huge comfy salaries in the present day.

This is especially true given that the economy is now headed back into the toilet. Tide is going out and many startups will die. Those that survive will be those in which neither founders nor employees are unduly greedy.