From the article: "What is the lesson here? Entrepreneurs need to not only have a great idea and successfully manage their business but also to be careful not t

From the article: "What is the lesson here? Entrepreneurs need to not only have a great idea and successfully manage their business but also to be careful not to sell too much of the business too soon. ... In part, [Zuckerberg owning 24% of Facebook right now] was a result of aggressively setting a valuation for his company early, ensuring that Mr. Zuckerberg kept substantial ownership. A high valuation benefited Mr. Zuckerberg because he needed to sell less stock to raise the same amount of money." The article suggests that you should fight for aggressively high valuations. There is a flipside to this. Setting your valuation aggressively high only benefits you if you win big. As Chris Dixon and others have warned (e.g. http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/08/fred-wilson-platforms-valuations/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/08/fred-wilson-platforms-valua...), a too-high valuation can lead to a down round if you don't meet expectations. This can harm your company and make it harder to raise your next round. So following the advice of this article is a risky gambit. You can't anticipate all roadblocks or obstacles that could prevent your company from growing as much as you intended when you raise that money. You can't control all external factors, e.g. the economy. It's your choice if you want to roll the one-hundred sided die.