You're not rebutting me, but rather proving my point about how skewed definitions of "success" harm equity crowdfunding investors.
There is in fact very little value of a "going concern" to outside investors. These "going concerns" are successes for people directly involved, but are not successes for investors. Consider that distributions are the normal way partners and LLC members get paid, and also a huge source of lawsuits, because when management is just a small fraction of ownership, their incentives are to minimize distributions.
You will find few people on HN more pro-boostrap and anti-VC than me. My last company bootstrapped and ran 10+ years. We're bootstrapping this one. I agree with everything Pinboard says about investment versus funding from customer revenue.
But those arguments only have merit as long as you aren't taking outside money to build the business. As soon as you take outside money, your business plan must make sense to the investors.
> your business plan must make sense to the investors.
Would locking in dividends in the business plan allow the investors to become "directly involved" and make investment in a "going concern but not a unicorn" a rational choice for an investor?
There is in fact very little value of a "going concern" to outside investors. These "going concerns" are successes for people directly involved, but are not successes for investors. Consider that distributions are the normal way partners and LLC members get paid, and also a huge source of lawsuits, because when management is just a small fraction of ownership, their incentives are to minimize distributions.
You will find few people on HN more pro-boostrap and anti-VC than me. My last company bootstrapped and ran 10+ years. We're bootstrapping this one. I agree with everything Pinboard says about investment versus funding from customer revenue.
But those arguments only have merit as long as you aren't taking outside money to build the business. As soon as you take outside money, your business plan must make sense to the investors.