incidentally, i still think somebody should write an article about what the community thinks is "Fair" compensation.
Skip past the "it depends" dialogue (which granted is important), and describe some border cases:
1. founders are jerks/morons, no faith in idea
2. founders are cool, but morons, no faith in idea
3. founders are cool, smart, misguided idea that might be able to be changed to work
4. founders are good + good idea
in case 1, i suspect most people only work for money
in case 4, i suspect some people will be willing to work for equity or money or some combination.
In case 1, the "compensation" including money probably has to be higher to put up with a crappy job.
In case 4, how much $ would it take in a "salary only" situation. In a split, how much equity and salary would you require?
2 and 3 are somewhere in between.
I've always been curious what people think fair compensation is for early stage startups.
