It depends on how you look at things. If all you care about is monetary gain, than burning through VC money and cashing out as much as you can along the way is

It depends on how you look at things. If all you care about is monetary gain, than burning through VC money and cashing out as much as you can along the way is likely to be personally more enriching. But if you care about advancing a technology, moving the world forward, not needlessly wasting resources, etc...than the small group is obviously a more ideal structure.