[tompetry]

The single data point here is Adam Neuman, so I have a hard time taking this seriously.

I have raised 6 equity rounds as a founder of 2 companies. Never took a dime off the table, was never offered it, never asked for it. We actually did have early employees ask about it, and we encouraged them to not sell.

Why would you, especially at early stage valuations? You're either bad at math, or you know you're about to fail. And who is buying these secondary shares? I don't know a VC or angel who would "de-risk" an early founder like this; it's not aligned with their model. It also complicates QSBS status if I recall correctly.

[adastra22]

> Never took a dime off the table, was never offered it, never asked for it

Well they certainly wouldn't volunteer the offer without you asking for it.

[tompetry]

> The founder in this scenario was offered $400,000 of liquidity at Series A and $750,000 at Series B and encouraged to do so by their board of investors to de-risk their own life.

This is from the article. I would tend to agree with you.