I have calculated my hourly rate including the money I would get after the IPO with 40USD share price and it came out around 100 USD. This is extremely sad given that I am senior engineer, imagine what somebody in a lower paid position gets. I think generally speaking, it is not worth it to work for 12 hours a day for a startup and get 10K shares over 5 years. If you actually work 8 hours and in your spare time doing a side project you might end up way better. You could get the ideas from the 4hour work week book.