Certainly :-).

I agree with all your points :-).

Passion is an excellent point to add that I didn't really touch on. Maybe if/when I revise this I'll add that dimension to it. It really goes back to the argument that people are the absolute #1 priority when getting a startup off the ground. If all the people don't truly believe in the end goal, you'll probably never get there :-).

I also agree with your second point. I know a lot of great developers that don't necessarily make good business people. I feel that's where networking comes into play with the people argument. If your idea is solid and you can get a group of people together that all believe in it at the beginning it's one thing. This letter is more geared toward someone starting a company that doesn't have the right people at the beginning.

Equity itself is neither good nor bad. It always depends on the situation and circumstances. I have structured such deals in the past when I saw the company going places and when I had started my contract with pay. They believed in proving their viability to me and my company and that's what made the deal.

I think a lot of great companies have a story that goes "we had a great team and the money ran out, but at that point we all believed we could really make it work!" That's the point equity should come into play. Check out Nvidia's story for a particularly good one.

Exactly. I would even advise against initial equity period regardless of pre-existing relationships. Entrepreneurship requires a certain level of dispassion toward friends and colleagues. It's not that I'm saying we should be cold, but acknowledge that the 90% of startups that fail are not ALL filled with morons. Great people with great product can still enter the market in unfavorable conditions and that can end it all

That was largely why I put it together :-). I want a landing page I can forward people to. I really feel for as often as I have the "equity" talk that I should have a pre-canned response on standby.

If you forward someone here I'd love to hear about it ;-).