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Fair enough. I was paraphrasing the actual formula.

That said, if you think equity is worthless, why are you considering being employee 1 at a startup?

I never said I thought equity is worthless. I said I would choose cash over equity if the equity is not weighted heavier than cash to account for the risk and illiquidity inherent in startup equity.

I am engineer #1 at a startup right now. The equity was very generous and weighted appropriately vs cash.

Sorry, I mistook your earlier statement to believe that you thought equity is worthless, when you were just saying there is no cash value for equity.

And yes, you're correct, the equity should be setup in a way that offers early hires significant upside.

Curious, did your founders use a flat %, or did they figure out some weighted amount?

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