The Difference Between Funding and Partnership
Capital is the commodity in venture investing. On the day the wire clears, money from one source is identical to money from another.
Everything that distinguishes an investor happens afterward: the quality of counsel in hard quarters, the willingness to make one more introduction, the steadiness when a plan changes.
A company choosing between term sheets is really choosing whom to sit beside for the better part of a decade. The reference calls that reveal how an investor behaved in difficulty are worth more than any headline term.