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My dream is to start a company with sufficient traction and revenue that I can demand investors take common stock if they want to invest. Such a situation would be a huge recruiting advantage, and combined with a generous and transparent employee equity plan would enable a much stronger team than traditional arrangements allow for.

The only problem is getting that level of traction is far from easy.

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You don't need traction to get that. There are a few big investors that are willing to buy common stock. I have one owning part of my company today. I had zero traction, just an early functional product.

I would never allow an investor into my company under any other terms: they eat the same dog food I or anyone else does. You don't need their money, there is a lot of money flowing around out there, so set the terms how you see fit and find the investor to match it.

Mind expanding on how one might find such an investor? I agree that the ideal scenario would be for investors to take the same risk (and reward) as other shareholders, but I have no idea how to find investors receptive to that idea.

I think if you had that level of traction and revenue, more often than not you wouldn't need any investment at all.

Exactly, you could just use debt financing instead of giving up equity.

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