If you try it with people, make certain the employees understand the background, otherwise they might be out the door later -- and you'll have to eat the cost of hiring again.

This might work on me even if I wasn't desperate -- and you e.g. showed me the books:

"This is a startup, we are optimizing for runway right now. If we like you, we will pay you and give you options -- but we must be thrifty for X months."