Not really, if they aren't going to value you at >1% when they're small, they're probably delusional and you already know everything you need to make a good decision in your own best interest.
Founders being greedy when the company is worthless is always a bad sign in my considerable experience (more than 20 years in the game, and grew up in PA, CA worshipping the startup culture of the 90s).
For the quintessential case study in founder greed gone wrong, search around about how it went for a company I passed over because of low equity offer, their name was Clinkle.
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Not really, if they aren't going to value you at >1% when they're small, they're probably delusional and you already know everything you need to make a good decision in your own best interest.
Founders being greedy when the company is worthless is always a bad sign in my considerable experience (more than 20 years in the game, and grew up in PA, CA worshipping the startup culture of the 90s).
For the quintessential case study in founder greed gone wrong, search around about how it went for a company I passed over because of low equity offer, their name was Clinkle.
2% max seems pretty normal to me. Ex: https://searchgently.notion.site/Founding-SWE-at-Gently-com-....
How much equity would you expect if you were the first engineering hire?