There is so much conflation in that first paragraph I couldn't get past it. The way I think about it is that options are how you earn money for doing a (/if you do a) good job. Much like doing a good job of picking a house in a neighborhood that you believe will appreciate, doing the right amount of renovation and renting it out while waiting, if you did this well you could make money on the appreciating assets. In a startup, your two main assets are time and people. Salary is how a company compensates you for the FACT that you're doing a good job. Bonuses are how the company compensates you for going above and beyond. In our company we have standard compensation packages based on tenure, within the structure, there is no way for anyone to make any more than anyone else outside of just being at the company for a long time. When you're betting on a startup you're betting on the founders and the team, not the VC, if you want a proper salary go work for a business that is already built, don't work on building one. Hedge funds and banks pay really well.