I would second this. Imagine you can self-fund a successful company, there is no reason for your company to go public if you are profitable and generating reve

I would second this. Imagine you can self-fund a successful company, there is no reason for your company to go public if you are profitable and generating revenue unless that in turn generates more income. This is a great for the owners of the company if you never have to take outside funding, but imagine that you have options in a company that never needs or wants to go public. Sure they can get you to work hard for a few years under the illusion of going public, but without a forcing function like a well timed exit there is no way those options will possibly be worth anything. So by taking outside VC equity based funding an entrepreneur is signaling that they can raise money if needed, that if the company works out there's a chance the non-founders will make money, and that the founders can deal with the pressure VCs will put on them and the company to perform [and yes that can sometimes mean ousting the founder(s)] and produce an exit event.