Well, for starters, there's the image part of it: the higher the top-line number, the more prestige comes with that. Then there's the potential that the founde

Well, for starters, there's the image part of it: the higher the top-line number, the more prestige comes with that. Then there's the potential that the founder has taken money off the table (giving up on-paper money for cash), so even if the deal isn't quite as nice as it could be, they still own a significant portion of a "successful" company. Also, the higher the top-line valuation, the more free marketing you get (the headlines read the same, just with a bigger number in it). This can translate into an easier time of hiring, and the ability to hand out smaller and smaller slices of equity for that top talent (employees generally will never see the term sheets to understand that even their 0.01% of the company is likely to be worth very little). Obviously some founders will optimize for the former (lower valuation for better terms); others will be more interested in ratcheting up that top-line number to attract future investors, high-value employees, book deals, press, etc. That's ultimately the founder's prerogative.