"You didn't have as strong of a desire to change the world"
That's a rather dickish thing to say. Especially because, as we've seen time and time again, very, very few of these startups are actually "changing the world". More and more, being asked to join a startup is just being asked to overwork yourself for peanuts and then be screwed out of equity.
Ok, I understand what you mean now. I will still go on record as saying that, regardless of how strong you believe in something, you shouldn't take pay cuts to do it, especially given the record startups have for shafting employees. One really only has about 40 years to earn all the money they're going to earn, and that time can go by rather quick.
That's a rather dickish thing to say. Especially because, as we've seen time and time again, very, very few of these startups are actually "changing the world". More and more, being asked to join a startup is just being asked to overwork yourself for peanuts and then be screwed out of equity.