[ajju]

>typically, venture rounds are participating preferred securities (at least)

That is increasingly false for A rounds, at least.

This 2 year old discussion talks about that, but from what I hear these days, any startup that doesn't "desperately" need money will not agree to participating preferred in the valley.

http://www.quora.com/How-common-are-participating-preferred-...

[rksf]

Yes, that is a good point. Some research suggests that today only ~35% of Valley Series A are part preferred(according to recent legal reports), but Crunchbase suggests that Loopt took series A in 2005, Series B in 2008 and Series C in 2010. Total capital raised (according to that post) was $32MM across 3 rounds. Not sure how much was primary or if any of it was taken out by later rounds, of course. Anyhow, I don't know for sure, but I suspect there were some protections around the securities, given the timing of the early rounds and the total amount invested. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/loopt