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That's why people say look at them like lottery tickets. There's many factors that go into whether or not they are worth anything - dilution and whether or not the startup is successful. The successful startup part needs good management, good demand for product, competitive against competitors.

> I was asked to take roughly 40% pay cut now and expect 10X increase

Of course you were. They are selling you on the dream, the best case scenario, etc. The hard part is that no-one is intentionally or literally defrauding, but it is up to every person what terms they agree to.

>If I treated options as "nice bonus" it would never make sense to take any startup offer over jobs at established companies.

It doesn't, from a financial perspective.

That's assuming you have job offers at established companies. If a start up is all you can get, then there's no tradeoff.