I have been offered to come on as CTO & Cofounder at a startup, here are the facts:

- The CEO and his business partner both own half of the company

- The CEO's business partner is his father

- We would be three "cofounders": The CEO, The Chief Scientist and me

- We have a great working relationship, I am currently working for them as a contractor.

- The AR app is part of a portfolio we are building to test the traction of our product

- All three founders are instrumental for the startup to work, we all complete each other extremely well

- The chief scientist was one of the first employees at a company which recently acquired by a large multinational for around $100M. The company is in the same field as our startup.

- The company being turned into a startup has existed for 3 years and has sold websites + hosting. Hosting generates approximately $20k/yr in revenue. The company is only being renamed as it pivots and "becomes a startup" (This is purely for cash flow).

- I recently declined an offer for $97k + $15k in equity at a very well known publicly traded tech company. I am in demand.

- We are located in the province of Quebec in Canada

They offered me to buy a 10% share in the company (for a total of ~$15k) to come in as CTO & cofounder. The value is based on the current net worth of the company. we would all be paid minimum wage. Both the CEO and the Chief Scientist are pouring $50k in the company to infuse cash flow for the first year, as part of our agreement I would not have to follow suit on any capital investment for the first year.

After a lot of research I can't help but feel like I am being taken advantage of. The way I see it the startup should be incorporated as a new entity and the equity should be split more equally. Any cash infusion by us should be rewarded in the form of convertible notes which should cover the capital risk we take when a Series A comes around.

Am I wrong? Am I about to make a huge mistake?