You have a lot more control in an early stage startup vs a later stage one where lots of design decisions have already been made before you arrived and you're kind of stuck with them. If you like having an influence on the design of the product, tools, even implementation languages the earlier you get in, the more influence you have.

1. AI is past the inflection point. Startups are best positioned to accelerate on this. I don't mean AI products, but just hiring people who are good at cursor and don't have this mental block. They're able to get to a more optimal 1 engineer per PM ratio without the demoralization of firing a whole bunch. These companies are growing a lot faster and earlier than before.

2. Late stage funding is dry, early stage funding is cheap now. It's been three years of "winter is coming".

3. Even without the equity, you're positioned to be in a good place with the right growth.

To me, it's just riding the wave instead of complaining about the wave.