Skip to Main Content
All Money Is Not Created Equal
book

All Money Is Not Created Equal

by David Spreng
July 2023
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
240 pages
5h 18m
English
Wiley
Content preview from All Money Is Not Created Equal

Introduction

Venture capital (VC) is often seen as the Holy Grail for founders with a big idea for their company. Having a great idea for a business is the start – but it isn't enough. You need capital to bring your idea to fruition. The quest for money to keep a dream – and a business – alive can be as consuming and stressful as the search for the technological breakthrough or market niche that will make a business viable and valuable. As you follow your dream, raising money is like walking a tightrope: one wrong step can be fatal.

Money, like everything else of value, comes at a price. For founders, the price often ends up being too high. In my 30 years of helping companies get the money they need to grow, I've seen too many really smart, hardworking entrepreneurs end up with too little to show for their blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Multiple rounds of equity investment from venture capitalists (VCs) can leave them with ownership stakes diluted to the point where they end up owning just a small fraction of the company they founded.

Reduced ownership stakes mean less profit for founders as well as for early-stage employees who trade low salaries for the promise of small equity stakes. It also means less control – less say in how a company is run, and less voice in its future (which could be an IPO, a sale to a strategic buyer, a merger, an acquisition of another company, or shutting down).

In my experience, the loss of control is often what disappoints and frustrates founders ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

The Short Put, a Worthwhile Cash Cow

The Short Put, a Worthwhile Cash Cow

Michael C. Thomsett
The Rise of the State: Profitable Investing and Geopolitics in the 21st Century

The Rise of the State: Profitable Investing and Geopolitics in the 21st Century

Yiannis G. Mostrous, Elliott H. Gue, David F. Dittman

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781119887805Purchase Link