The article's thesis seems to be that you can predict the future success of a company by how willing they are to hand out equity. The big thing, though, to rem

The article's thesis seems to be that you can predict the future success of a company by how willing they are to hand out equity. The big thing, though, to remember when negotiating with professionals? they are professionals. Their only job is to profit from information asymmetry. It's probably a mistake to think that you are better at the information asymmetry game than they are. just as a real-world data point: I have been very, very stingy when it comes to giving out ownership in prgmr.com. While this /does/ signal a long-term commitment from me, it really has more to do with the fact that I don't have a clear 'exit strategy' than anything else- prgmr.com is not a 'get big fast or die' kind of company. I very well might be running this business until I retire, and, well, you probably will have moved on by then. I'm talking about partnering with some other people on other ventures with a shorter timeframe, and for that? sure, I'm happy to share.