Andrew Mason may only own 7.5% of Groupon, but the absolute value of Andrew's stake right now is almost certainly much higher than if he had decided to "preserv

Andrew Mason may only own 7.5% of Groupon, but the absolute value of Andrew's stake right now is almost certainly much higher than if he had decided to "preserve equity" and skipped one of the many rounds Groupon has raised. (Long-term, maybe not.) YC's advice for founders is the opposite: don't optimize on valuation (or valuation cap, for debt)-- whether you give up an additional few percent matters less than other factors, like how much value the investors add or the time and effort spent completing the deal (and not working on product). This is related to YC's argument for why they're worth their 2-12%: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html http://paulgraham.com/equity.html