IF there's enough liquidation preferences, even a successful exit in the $50M range could leave nothing more than a fraction of your annual salary for everyone

IF there's enough liquidation preferences, even a successful exit in the $50M range could leave nothing more than a fraction of your annual salary for everyone but the founders. Every dollar taken in investment reduces the likelihood of regular employees cashing out unless it boosts the ultimate stock price and success chance of the company significantly. Too much money is chasing too many companies so the founders are tempted to take the money, roll the dice and hope they become a Facebook, even though the odds of that are extremely slim. This is the difference between a "startup" and a business. Startups used to be a phase of business, but it's become it's own thing now. A business will not take money it doesn't have to, realizing that profitability will fund growth. (And to be honest, I don't see a lot of mechanisms by which VC money funds growth-- all of the successes hit a viral growth loop or opened a massive unmet need... the VC money just made product development easier... mostly after the tornado started.)