They're thinking, 'If my customer likes you, that's an objective opinion. Akamai got this from Apple Computer, Cisco Systems and Microsoft. We worked with those companies to develop a platform they could use and they also invested in the company. Taking that kind of investment validated us as a market leader. An audience member asked Seelig how to calculate the amount of stock one should keep when negotiating with investors.
Dilution is bad.
But it's more of a problem in the early rounds of money-raising. Seelig said that Akamai stock is not only distributed to investors but also to employees. Akamai's most recent strategy to raise money was going public in October 1999. Our salespeople reported that they were getting calls returned that hadn't been returned before. And going public gave us currency for growth through acquisition.