[theflyingkiwi42]

Not entirely related but to the point of Mark's 'bias'. I had a meeting with him many years ago when he just got started at GRP. Despite his very clear 'No' to our pitch, he gave some of the best, and direct, advice I received and nearly 5 years later it is still serving me well. It allowed me to do what I wanted without needing to raise money at that point. Of course that makes me biased towards his post so take my opinion with a grain of salt :)

That said, Mark seems one of the guys that really likes to help entrepreneurs. I read his post not as "Don't ever do a note" but "be very aware of unintended consequences". As I am starting to fundraise for a new company, I've felt incredibly uncomfortable with convertible notes for the reasons Mark outlined in his post. I thought I was being paranoid since everybody is saying notes are the way to go, so it is nice to read an opposing view.