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You are misrepresenting how dilution works - and dilution usually is not what fucks you. Dilution is fairly straightforward - someone ponies up money and gets a share of the company. The valuation that gets handed around is usually what’s called “post money” - how much is the company worth after investors have paid in their money. In a simple example, matching your numbers, a company that is worth 10 million, with 10 million shares, each valued at 1 dollar with a 90/10 split finds someone who invests a billion dollars at 1 dollar per share. These shares are created as part of the acquisition. The value of the shares doesn’t change - the company, post money, now is valued at 1 billion 10 million and has 1 billion 10 million shares, each worth 1 dollar. It also happens to have 1 billion in cash at hand. No change in value for anyone here, but dilution happened - the person that owned 10% of the company pre-investment now only owns 0.1% - but the value of each share is still the same, which means they still own the same number of shares, each at the same valuation with the same total value.

The problem tends to be elsewhere - as part of the deal, the investor asked that his share get preferred treatment in the next round - a liquidation preference which grants them the right to first take their investment of the table and then, whatever is left is distributed. The company gets sold for 1 billion. The investor takes the billion that they invested off the table. There’s nothing left to be distributed. Your shares are suddenly worthless - just as the founders.



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