Definition
The impossible choice between maintaining control of your company and maximizing its financial value, first articulated by Harvard's Noam Wasserman. You can be rich or you can be king, but probably not both.
Example Usage
He chose control over capital, maintaining 60% ownership through bootstrap growth, then watched his competitor raise $50M and dominate the market.
Origin
Coined by Noam Wasserman in his 2008 Harvard Business Review article and 2012 book
Fun Fact
Wasserman's research found that founders who gave up more equity early had companies worth 3-4x more than bootstrap founders, but only controlled about 15% of them—making the 'rich versus king' trade-off stark and quantifiable.
Source: Academic research, Noam Wasserman, Harvard Business School
Related Terms
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See “founder's dilemma” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.
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