So many funds will prove a big competitor though, and sequoia Investments is well known for its success with investing in the past. But who wouldn't invest at such a discount (read article: pre sale discount is massive)
I think even more than the benefit of money (to hire talent,) Filecoin is benefitting from the advice and connections from their investors!
- https://medium.com/@twobitidiot/ico-ethics-filecoin-short-te...
- https://medium.com/@ryanshea/the-economics-of-filecoin-a8d82...
"..all our work has been funded by under $3.5M. We know how to deploy capital effectively."
Then don't raise capital like hell. Pure greed.
Money quote from your link:
"Call me old fashioned, but wanting to raise half a billion dollars for a pre-product endeavor is absolutely fucking insane."
Magic Leap ($1.4B), Theranos ($720M), Color ($41M), Clinkle ($25M)
That article sounds like mostly sour grapes. The whole thing can be summarised as "How dare they give early investors discounts, when I wasn't invited to invest at the same time!!" This is followed by "how dare they raise money, and then admit they don't actually need as much to run the business!!"
The guy just sounds pissed other people are making more off of this then he will.
Honest question?
Why wouldn't they? It is pretty standard to raise different rounds at different valuations.
It's like a land was up for sale. You buy it at x, dig it a bit to see it's covered with gold then put it back on sale for 8x.
(Of course you may be fooling everyone that it's covered with gold but it's really not.)
In my mind, it's not especially different from an IPO where banks put their names on the line to build the book and then get a percentage of the offering for effectively being the marketer.
so its an ok criticism in the token sale space, but it is a different and unnecessary standard