>> Engineers that can add a quarter of a million dollars to a company's value in a weekend don't charge $75/hr. World-class engineers like that usually end up...

Anything can add a quarter million dollars to a company over the weekend. A news story. A celeb endorsement. A new feature. Engineering input is so divorced from perceived value in the startup world (AFAICT) that I wouldn't rule much out.

Equity is an odd one but if I was to be one of your first few employees, working hard to create your product, putting my creative as well as technical skills directly into your success... Damn right I want some equity. It's very different from working on an established product for an established company.