Agree.<p>&gt; suggest to trade the equity portion of the offer for the cash value of the options (in addition to the advertised salary). Good luck.<p>I was explicitly given that choice (in three packages, high&#x2F;med&#x2F;low options count in exchange for offsetting increase in starting salary). Being &quot;smart&quot;, I took the salary and low options and that was a poor choice in retrospect, given that we IPO&#x27;d 2.5 years later and my salary now would surely be the same regardless of the initial choice.<p>I don&#x27;t know how common it is, but it&#x27;s absolutely doable and done. (I suppose you could argue whether the company I joined was early-stage or not.)