Anyone giving you equity instead of a salary in cash is looking to take advantage of your not understanding what equity really means.
How major shareholders can change the deal by dilution, how can they just spin up separate entities to compete with what you have even though it might seem they are on the same boat while in reality they are not.
One would say "you can always go to court" - can you? If guy that gives you equity was already in the game he already has lawyers and most likely more capital in his pockets. If your equity will be worth $200k and he drags court case so you have to pay for your lawyers $300k in fees is it worth? Especially if you are an engineer that has mortgage instead of loads of cash in bank or other investments. Can you stretch $100k over to win the case and then even if you win and he has to pay you back all the costs with interests, you believe someone will just wire up it in one day instead of dragging it out for another 10 years where you as small time guy cannot sleep at night because all of the crap.
How major shareholders can change the deal by dilution, how can they just spin up separate entities to compete with what you have even though it might seem they are on the same boat while in reality they are not.
One would say "you can always go to court" - can you? If guy that gives you equity was already in the game he already has lawyers and most likely more capital in his pockets. If your equity will be worth $200k and he drags court case so you have to pay for your lawyers $300k in fees is it worth? Especially if you are an engineer that has mortgage instead of loads of cash in bank or other investments. Can you stretch $100k over to win the case and then even if you win and he has to pay you back all the costs with interests, you believe someone will just wire up it in one day instead of dragging it out for another 10 years where you as small time guy cannot sleep at night because all of the crap.