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I think your distinction would imply that Facebook/Meta was not venture backed, which it is, since Mark Zuckerberg has always held a majority stake?

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Mark maneuvered for the best of both worlds with the dual class voting shares. He owns the majority of the vote but only ~13% of the share capital. From the rumblings I've heard, I don't think VC allow this type of Google/Meta share class anymore, and/or SP500 don't include new entrants, but not super knowledgeable here.

I work with quite a few company with dual class voting common shares. I will never understand the notion of not implementing that at incorporation if you want it. Will you have the leverage to get a VC to agree to let you keep it? Maybe, maybe not. But the worst that happens is you get rid of it, which is virtually costless.

Honestly, implementing a 10M share one class common company just to make a VC happy sends horrible signals for negotiating with investors. It shows that you are happy to pre-negotiate against yourself from the get go just to look VC friendly. If you cared about retaining control, why would you do that?

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