&gt; many startups in reality do start paying at or above market<p>I think that&#x27;s the key phrase here. I don&#x27;t know if they paid at or above market rate and that would be where I&#x27;d start looking before passing judgement.<p>Your company&#x27;s job postings suggest &quot;competitive salary and meaningful equity&quot;, which is a much better signal than Heyzap&#x27;s posting[0] i.e. no mention of compensation whatsoever (I personally prefer a salary range to know if the discussion is even worth our collective time).<p>They&#x27;re a small startup so the data is incomplete and meaningless, but assuming the one salary posted on Glassdoor ($65-75k for a marketing manager) is accurate, I think it&#x27;s fair to say that their compensation package was quite low and heavy on equity.<p>&gt; I&#x27;m not too upset about employees who have been making market salaries not getting much out of an acqui-hire<p>I completely agree with you. If you&#x27;re getting market or above market salary then equity shouldn&#x27;t be an issue whatsoever.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.glassdoor.com&#x2F;job-listing&#x2F;software-engineer-heyzap-JV_IC1147401_KO0,17_KE18,24.htm?jl=1162901135" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.glassdoor.com&#x2F;job-listing&#x2F;software-engineer-heyz...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.glassdoor.com&#x2F;Salary&#x2F;Heyzap-Salaries-E493011.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.glassdoor.com&#x2F;Salary&#x2F;Heyzap-Salaries-E493011.htm</a>