at least early on, entrepreneurs often "bootstrap-finance" their start-up rather than seeking external investors from the start. one of the reasons that some entrepreneurs prefer to "bootstrap" is that obtaining equity financing requires the entrepreneur to provide ownership shares to the investors. if the start-up becomes successful later on, these early equity financing deals could provide a windfall for the investors and a huge loss for the entrepreneur. if investors have a significant stake in the company, they may as well be able to exert influence on company strategy, chief executive officer (ceo) choice and other important decisions. this is often problematic since the investor and the founder might have different incentives regarding the long-term goal of the company. an investor will generally aim for a profitable exit and therefore promotes a high-valuation sale of the company or ipo to sell their shares. whereas the entrepreneur might have philanthropic intentions as their main driving force. soft values like this might not go well with the short-term pressure on yearly and quarterly profits that publicly traded companies often experience from their owners.