> It happens because, these days, founders often retain control of shares and board even all the way up to billion-dollar acquisitions That's the part I was mi

> It happens because, these days, founders often retain control of shares and board even all the way up to billion-dollar acquisitions That's the part I was missing. I know of a few companies currently valued at > $500M, and for all of them the founders still own about ~15-20% (together), and the investors across all rounds (usually they are at a Series D stage) have enough equity (50%+) and voting seats to basically not just let the founders do whatever they want, and these companies are very healthy business wise. It's just the standard cost of taking every new round with a 15-20% dilution, it really doesn't take that much to lose the majority. I assume that in order to raise money at terms much more favorable than these, the company must be doing incredibly well, to the point where the investors are going to think "well, this company is going to get so big that I'll make big bucks anyway". Not all companies that sell in the high 9 figures can command such privileged treatment from investors, in my opinion. And in some cases, the investors-founders relationship is not necessarily adversarial, several seasoned entrepreneurs raise money from investors with whom they've been cultivating deep business relationships over the years, so they definitely have a "common goal" even if technically one could screw the other. Of course this might not happen with a more naive 20-something startup founder, who might get eaten alive by investors. But I take your data point as very interesting, and something I hadn't considered.