The amount of hand-holding a VC has to do is often inversely proportional to a startup's profitability. Startups that do make it big, usually stay big when the

The amount of hand-holding a VC has to do is often inversely proportional to a startup's profitability. Startups that do make it big, usually stay big when the folks at the helm know what to do or can at least quickly figure out what to do by the seat of their pants. That's quite a bit harder when there's an additional layer of bureaucracy involved, so investors can choose to stay back and let the founders do their thing or founders decide to get fewer investors involved in the fist place to ensure their freedom to operate with some modicum of independence. To be fair, percentage equity (or "Power") can be expressed in ways other than direct control of a company's heading.