The motive that came through to me was a sense of a loss of voice, i.e. he didn't feel like he had an equal say now that they had accepted money from investors. I.e. unrealistic expectations.
I don't really understand that. Investors gave you money because they believed in the vision you conveyed (or whatever); aside from some very minimal minority-shareholder protections, and protecting your reputation, investors in early stage companies have very little power over you.
The strongest pressure is probably from cofounders, or from employees/customers (once you have those; you can also fire either), or from yourself.
> Investors gave you money because they believed in the vision you conveyed (or whatever);
But it isn't just that. They are locked into an exit strategy and they have to protect that interest. This is even true of the investors with the most honesty and integrity.
In other words, one would hope that an investor would not micromanage, but the investor is ultimately in it to make money and has a few small acceptable options to do that, so they are going to protect that interest. Money == power.
Seed stage investors have essentially no power. They have convertible notes (i.e. are debtholders) -- this gives them about as much power over you as your credit card company, as long as you stay current on the payments (which are usually deferred in the contract); YC is common-holder (and has 2-10%).
You can literally ignore the investors for at least the duration of the note (and probably longer) with no real repercussions. If you sell the company, they'll be able to get in line for money (and generally get paid first), but until Series A, investors have essentially no control to do anything.
In practice, being a dick to your investors (intentionally or unintentionally) is a bad idea (sorry! was busy!), as they usually will help you a lot more if they know how they can help you, but otherwise, it's pretty much at the bottom of concerns.
