I wouldn't consider myself a co-founder with < 5% equity, and I wouldn't join a team like this unless my cash comp were 75% of my market rate. If you feel super strongly about the TAM and product idea, or need less cash - take a risk! But, for me (at FAANG comp), I would need something like $175-200k + 10-20%.
Kind of yes. Market rate (I'm also FAANG) with less equity or vice-versa. The equity ceiling is at 10%. The way I'm thinking about it is that given the amount of risk at this early stage with no prototype, customers or revenue and the amount of work involved, the expected pay-off for the time and stress isn't quite transformational for me.
I don't believe in giving up work-life balance and cutting my pay in half for the "startup experience". I wouldn't go pay 100k+ tuition for a degree in "startups" - whatever that means.