Raise Millions by Hustle Fund VC Page 22 Now let’s assume this pizza is worth $20. Your objective is to grow the value of your pizza. It could be worth $20 now, but in 10 years, your pizza could be valued at $1B. So how do you grow the value of the pizza? You give away slices of the pizza to strategic people – investors, advisors, and key employees – who will massively help you. Every time you give away a slice of pizza, you’re actually giving away equity in the business. Equity means ownership in the company. So if an investor has 5% of the equity in your business, they own 5% of your company. Now, it’s unavoidable that you’ll lose some ownership of the pizza as you raise money. But these strategic people that you gave slices to can help bring the valuation of the entire pie from $20 to $1M to $100M and hopefully to $1B. Even if you only own 15% (equity) of the pie (your company) by the end, if it’s valued at $1B, then your slice will be worth $150M. It’ll be easier to accept that you don’t own the other 85% of the pizza because your small slice is so valuable on its own. But you need to be careful about giving away your pizza slices. As you can see, one small slice in the beginning can be worth millions of dollars down the line. Every time you give equity away means that you (the founder) will have less ownership over your own business. hustlefund.vc / @hustlefundvc