I quickly realized those are the absolute worst positions to be in

I second this. I took a large salary cut to be 1/2 of an engineering team at a seed stage startup for ~1.25%. After 2 years of pretty grueling work I left to go back to big tech for 3x the pay. I wouldn't call it a total waste of time in the sense that it made me a better engineer, but it certainly wasn't worth it financially. The company still exists and has had a relatively successful series A and "A extension" but I don't think my equity will ever be worth anything. I really wouldn't recommend anyone work as an engineer at an early stage startup unless you're getting ~5% or more (this would be unprecedented) because the risk is barely less than the founders and the pay is generally terrible. Series B or later (growth stage) may be a sweet spot where the salaries are decent and there is still significant equity upside without the insane hours.

Founding engineers are so underpaid relative to founders. I’ve seen it be founding CTO with 40% and founding engineer with 1%. It’s ridiculous and we should not accept it as the standard. A few good early hires can be just as valuable as good founders.

> Either you create/found a startup or it's not worth joining one as an employee. You have way more upside at a FAANG/pre-IPO mid-life startup that already found a great product market fit. I'm glad you mention the pre-IPO mid-life startup and not solely trot out the usual "work for a FAANG instead and make $600k/yr out the gate" nonsense. There are quite a few pre-IPO mid-life (or even vaguely-but-not-super-early) startups out there that are doing well, growing more or less sustainably, will pay you a market-rate (or even above) base salary, and give you a solid equity package that has a much higher likelihood of being worth something than those early-stage startup options have. You might not make $600k/yr at a FAANG, but most people at a FAANG aren't making that, and many smart, talented people won't pass a FAANG interview anyway.