Happened to me. I was that unfortunate CTO for a fintech startup. Unqualified CEO with anger issues but with loads of money waited till past traction and nod from investors, then simply booted me and my team out on some lame pretext, going as far as bad-mouthing 2 years of hard work by the tech team and now the CEO and the board have ghosted and won't return calls/email to pay or honour employment contract terms! Sane advice above, DO NOT accept equity, always go for hard cash, lesson learnt the hard way!