In 2018 I tried to cut my Revolut salary to £0.
I’d just been promoted to VP. We’d just closed Series C. 3 years in, I had full conviction Revolut would become a $1T company. I didn’t want cash. I wanted shares.
My general counsel wouldn’t let me go below minimum wage. It was against the law. So I took minimum wage and the rest in equity.
I had ~£20k in the bank from university side hustles. I built a simple runway model and I had about two years before I went broke. LFG.
So I rented a 300 sq ft studio five minutes from the office and ate free company food to keep costs down.
Today those shares are worth $10M+.