He kept all his equity, we should be congratulating him for his acumen and prowess in negotiating this so smoothly. Why are we glorifying giving a fraction of

He kept all his equity, we should be congratulating him for his acumen and prowess in negotiating this so smoothly. Why are we glorifying giving a fraction of a fraction of a percent to employees who are going to be further diluted or totally zeroed out in any exit? Why are we treating equity in other people’s hands as validation? Offering convertible debt that converts into services or something else is a way of financing. You don't need to aspire for a bunch of crunchbase entries. There was a time when I thought different like “oh thats not a real seed round if the investors didnt do a share investment, or thats not a real series A” but now I know differently and primarily take a dim view on preferred shares, liquidity preferences and expensive capital - when acting as a founder or employee. Many ideas are more profitable exits for founders if there were no liquidity preferences.