Unless it’s a hostile situation (as might happen with public cos/activist investors), I don’t think it’s actually that costly. At seed stage, it’s just kind of normal to give board seats to major “investors”, and you want to have a good relationship with both your major investors and your board.
The attitude Sam had at the time was less “please make this grant so that we don’t have to take a bad deal somewhere else, and we’re willing to ‘sell’ you a board seat to close the deal” and more “hey would you like to join in on this? we’d love to have you. no worries if not.”
Unless it’s a hostile situation (as might happen with public cos/activist investors), I don’t think it’s actually that costly. At seed stage, it’s just kind of normal to give board seats to major “investors”, and you want to have a good relationship with both your major investors and your board.
The attitude Sam had at the time was less “please make this grant so that we don’t have to take a bad deal somewhere else, and we’re willing to ‘sell’ you a board seat to close the deal” and more “hey would you like to join in on this? we’d love to have you. no worries if not.”