> "Besides that, there are some mental hurdles you have to overcome by yourself about understanding the risk-reward of a startup. Taking a 30-40% salary cut is just one of those."

Uh... how about... no.

So very, very tired of founders trying to convince everyone that tiny stake as an employee in a startup is worth a giant haircut, or really, any haircut at all.

If you want me to take a huge haircut, bring meaningful equity to the table. It's laughable how some startups want you to take a $20-30K haircut in exchange for equity that, if the startup exits big after years of toil, might buy you a Smart car.

Sometimes recruiters cold call me and try to pitch me on some startup or another, and then ask if I'm amenable to taking a haircut in exchange for equity. At this point I'm tempted to just issue a blanket "hell no".