As spullara mentions, owning a smaller portion of a more valuable company is obviously preferable than owning a lot of a less valuable company. I am all for bo

As spullara mentions, owning a smaller portion of a more valuable company is obviously preferable than owning a lot of a less valuable company. I am all for bootstrapping and people choosing their model, but lately there has been quite a bit of vitriol for these advanced growth stage companies (no longer startups) who are largely VC owned. My opinion is always - Ok, these founders/ early employees knew what they were doing at some level. They were the boots on the ground who - in this case - said, if we want to grow to the point we can IPO, need to raise $85.5M to get to that point. Playing arm-chair quarterback isn't really fair when we don't have great insights.