Generally, startups don't pay market rate, it seems. I've seen offers for $125k - $175k as the base, while bigger tech companies will pay a total compensation of double or even triple that, so the 0.5% needs to make up for that difference. I don't see any startups paying at that "market rate" of big tech, as I've generally seen. Yes, I am focusing on big tech specifically but those that work at startups should be good enough to get into a big tech company anyway.