One problem with traditional VC money is that (most?) major VCs seem to enter the discussions with an idea of how much stake they want in the company they're in

One problem with traditional VC money is that (most?) major VCs seem to enter the discussions with an idea of how much stake they want in the company they're investing in. So, when you have a number of VCs with this idea in a competitive round, the only thing that a VC can really change is the amount they're putting in relative to what others are putting in, so they all put more money in and the valuation goes way up and the amount of money ends up ballooning to 2 or 3 times what the founders originally wanted to raise. Lame. Likely or not to succeed, it's clear who the VC system serves right now, and it's good to see the scene starting to shake up. If indie.vc can attract a nontrivial number of good early-stage startups, then they have a legit shot here. And good on them for taking that risk.