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In the end, Phil is to blame for what happened to Ars Digita. He is obviously a great software builder, and an excellent visionary, but he is not a good corporate leader. Good corporate leadership is far shrewd, careful and cautious when it comes to taking people's money. aD was profitable. It was growing. It was stable. The VCs should have brought truckloads of cash to his door, in return for a small ownership stake and extremely limited control. All of the problems that Phil had with the VCs could have been avoided if he had simply been a good corporate negotiator, and had retained good corporate counsel. Allowing someone to take your profitable company and wrest control away from you is the worst form of irresponsibility. Easily avoided by the simplest of legal tools. If you're going to play the big game, and take other people's money as investment, you *must* excercise good judgement, caution and shrewdness. It saddens me that Phil lost control. I admire his skill ...