Would you take a paycut?

Hi Viners, My elder brother who used to work in strategy got laid off in July. He had a fixed pay of 35 and total CTC of 42. ( 2 lakh annual esops, 5 lakh variable). He has a pretty good runway and not worried about the finances since currently at home and no rent/ other metro city expenses. He has been working as an external consultant since December and making 3 lakh per month as fees. Yesterday he received an full time offer from a startup with Fixed pay 32, 1 lakh retention, 1 lakh performance bonus and 4 lakh annual esops at the last valuation. The startup is yet to raise series B but the role he is getting is a strategy and ops planning role along with PnL responsibility in 3-6 months. HR told him that the salary would get revised once they recieve series B but he knows that stuff is usually just lip service. Glassdoor reviews also show that the workload will be high and might have to work on public holidays as well. Would you advice to take this?