Just how much is that 2% really worth?
My advice to people who want to work in a startup is always very simple: <i>Ignore any equity.</i><p>If you'd take the job without any equity then take the job. If the equity is part of your reason for taking the job, you probably shouldn't take it.<p>Base rate neglect[1] means we are <i>terrible</i> at evaluating the probability of equity being valuable. For every story about someone making millions out of their equity when the startup they're working for exits there are <i>thousands</i> of stories of people who walked away with nothing but a few years having fun solving challenging problems. <i>That</i> is the reason to work in a startup, because that is the definite, concrete thing on the table. If you want to make millions in software, get a job writing code at a bank and invest your salary.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy</a>