Keeping control of a startup has nothing to do with owning the majority of it.

You can own 90% of your startup and still have to answer to someone else.

We hear this all of the time from Founders when raising money "I want to make sure I don't dilute too much of my company to investors because I want to maintain control of it."

Ah, the illusion of control.

In our minds, it means that we have enough ownership interest that no one can tell us what to do. We believe we can raise capital and take on outside investors without also having to be driven by them.

As it turns out, we can lose control of our startups in a lot of ways that have nothing to do with owning a majority share.

What is Control, Really?

Let's first define what controlling a co...