It is not about the exit, it's about making the exit pay more than Sarbanes-Oxley and other laws cost. The sad fact is that, with present regulations, a $1M/ye

It is not about the exit, it's about making the exit pay more than Sarbanes-Oxley and other laws cost. The sad fact is that, with present regulations, a $1M/year American company has a net present value of zero. In a sane economy, the VC could flip that in a heartbeat, but instead they are forced to blow up profitable companies so as to realize a tax deduction. In fact, I suspect that VCs would prefer to take sub-Sarbox exits and ignore the 20x exits if they had the choice: 10 exits of $2M each has vastly lower risk than a single $20M exit.