Digg is one notable example of a founder taking money of the table and the investment falling apart. Kevin Rose took quite a lot of money off the table and it could be argued that's when the Digg lost it's visionary leader. Kevin seemed to shift his focus away from building a successful company towards investing and advising other companies. I think it's hard to argue he did the wrong thing on a personal level, but for the company it was devastating. I think allowing a founder to take SOME (enough to not worry about personal finances) money off the table is reasonable for an entrepreneur that's reached some level of success. But it's an entirely different story to allow a venture-backed founder to take a sizable amount of cash off the table, enough to greatly reduce any incentive to build a company worthy of a successful exit or an IPO.