He kept 80%. The other 20% is owned by 8 different VCs. Seems like he's still in control. There's value in using other people's money instead of your own because it might make him less emotionally risk-averse in how he manages it.
Most of the time it's not about the money VCs send into it but the credibility that this brings. It looks a lot more mature when your idea is backed by a distribution of wealthy people.
The point is more - it's primary goal is not to enable developers to do more and better, it's primary goal is to _maximize shareholder value_. Important thing to keep in mind.
If he believes in the product he could have kept 100% of his company.
He kept 80%. The other 20% is owned by 8 different VCs. Seems like he's still in control. There's value in using other people's money instead of your own because it might make him less emotionally risk-averse in how he manages it.
100% of something without any measurable adoption or scale can suck.
Most of the time it's not about the money VCs send into it but the credibility that this brings. It looks a lot more mature when your idea is backed by a distribution of wealthy people.
The point is more - it's primary goal is not to enable developers to do more and better, it's primary goal is to _maximize shareholder value_. Important thing to keep in mind.