Basically, you can simlpy be a crew member, drawing a regular salary, or you can use some of the starting funds Alacrity would have given you for equipment and such, and buy a share of the ship. That means you get a share of any profits after all operating expenses (including wages to salaried crew) are taken care of. Being salaried, on the other hand, means you get paid regular, and the same amount whether we're doing well or not. You don't get extra, however, if we ever manage to score something big, because if you do get paid when we're not doing well, it means the owners are doing without
I know Willow, Dash and Sung all own a piece of the Roc, not sure what Kora and Asher had decided.