It happened last year to my current employer. It also was the 20 years anniversary of the company.
Everything changed and I’ve seen it change from a
small agile business with nice people to a baby corporation with up or out mentality, useless processes everywhere, harassment methods from HR department. In one year, VC money created as many millionaires as employee burn-outs.
I don't think any VC would back a startup to get to 2M in 10 years. They may do it as a nice gesture if they were failing anyway but no VC would want that outcome after a decade. One example: Gumroad. The investors were nice to let the founder keep going while they let him buy them out for like $1 or something. Today Gumroad is much bigger and decently successful company. Mailchimp was bootstrapped for many years with a service component. If they had raised VC money, they would have been forced to pivot or die early.
Everything changed and I’ve seen it change from a small agile business with nice people to a baby corporation with up or out mentality, useless processes everywhere, harassment methods from HR department. In one year, VC money created as many millionaires as employee burn-outs.