Anything is possible. But at the time Powerset was a high profile startup with a reputation for being engineering driven. The financial crisis hadn't hit either. So it's not really plausible for them to have been hiring engineers who were unable to find any other work.
As for taking a paycut to work on something particularly cool, sure, why not? I've certainly done it in the past. But accepting a salary lower that doesn't even cover your cost of living (as implied in the article), when joining a company that's reportedly taken $20M in venture capital... That seems pretty unreasonable. Even exploitative.
As for taking a paycut to work on something particularly cool, sure, why not? I've certainly done it in the past. But accepting a salary lower that doesn't even cover your cost of living (as implied in the article), when joining a company that's reportedly taken $20M in venture capital... That seems pretty unreasonable. Even exploitative.