>I never understood, what is to prevent a startup from raising a VC seed round, then a series A round, and then simply grow at its own pace? Is there something

>I never understood, what is to prevent a startup from raising a VC seed round, then a series A round, and then simply grow at its own pace? Is there something in the SAFE note or whatever, You're looking for something in legal paperwork with Terms & Covenants that for some reason is unstated in public discussions. The real underlying reason your idea of "just take the VCs money and do the opposite of what the investors want" isn't common is that it goes against the founders' personal integrity of doing business honestly. This means the founders not lying to VCs when they make presentations with the reasons for raising capital. I.e. the founders forecast TAM Total Addressable Market for revenue, forecast costs for servers and employees, explain their ambitions for growth, etc. The type of founders trying to get in front of VCs to convince them to fund their startup are supposed to be a self-selected set entrepreneurs who inherently want to grow fast and don't need VCs telling them to do so. If honest business dealing is the premise, then there's no need to "trick" the VCs into wiring them millions into the startup's bank account and then tell them "oops, I lied in my presentations and now that I have your money, I just want to grow slow at my own pace." Your question can also be modified to ask about a VC fund's intentions: "Why can't a VC fund raise money from LP (Limited Partners) and then just live off the guaranteed 2% management fee instead of taking risky investments and possibly losing money?" -- What stops VCs from doing that is the venture capitalist's personal integrity when asking the LP for money. With that said, there can be a difference in legal mechanisms between an angel/seed round with no board seat taken by a VC -vs- Series A with a VC on the board. At later stages, the board can outvote the founders and/or fire them.