VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall reports on MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe being “shortchanged” by the Fox MySpace acquisition. Reportedly he received only $5 million. On the one hand, how many people have $5 million? On the other, the company was sold for $580 million and so, if true, he was really diluted.
I spoke to a reporter last week who said the same thing and asked whether I’d heard that the MySpace founders were angry or frustrated with the money they received.
Many entrepreneurs I speak with aggressively caution against taking VC money. Something like: take as little as possible for as long as you can hold out. To that end, here’s an interesting NY Times piece (reg req’d) on the subject featuring IM “aggregator” Meebo, which was started with credit cards.
Low overhead is the answer to the question, “How can all these little companies survive?”
Screenwerk 
November 13, 2006 at 6:32 am
Whew, glad to hear we’re not the only ones who thought outside funding seemed expensive. These other examples help me rationalize our bootstrap approach of “no outside funding” to my biz partner and our oversmart employees who are underpaid! Glad we passed and grew our biz to be self-sustaining+…Of course, on the flipside, funding could’ve allowed a team (like Cornerstone) to get relevent faster. Hmm…