It is because a startup is an investment vehicle, not a business. If someone had X amount of dollars they want to maximize the rate of return on that wealth. T

It is because a startup is an investment vehicle, not a business. If someone had X amount of dollars they want to maximize the rate of return on that wealth. The point of growth in investing is that you can see the future before it happens and pocket the difference. For example if I invest in company Y and they are growing at a certain rate, I can sell my portion of the company based upon expected future potential. If the buyer of my shares believes the company will become 30% larger in 5 years, that is not much more than they would earn if they had some investment that return 5% a year. If the buyer of my shares believes my stock will be worth 100% more in 5 years that would now be equivalent to a return of 15% a year. So here comes the trick. Even 10% a year would be a great rate of return. So I can sell my shares at a premium. Pocketing the 5% today as opposed to waiting 5 years. If I can pocket 7% or even 10% of that would be even better. Now if this company will be worth 500% more in 5 years, you can see how I would stand to make a large amount of money today by selling my asset that will be worth much more later. With a company growing at a normal speed, there is not much of a premium I can extract for future growth to a potential buyer of my shares.