Obviously, there is no liquidity and they ain't paying you $2mm for your stock.

I'm more curious about the fuzzy math, which I assume is in reference to the statement that the person would have received 25% of $2mm taken out by the principles. The 25% would only come into play if funds were a distribution of earnings as a dividend paid to shareholders as opposed to salary. While there can be tax advantages to paying a dividend in lieu of salary, I suspect the numbers don't work out if you you only get 75 cents on the dollar due to the need to pay the dividend to this investor. Specifically, if the principles needed $2mm over those dozen years, the company would have had to pay out $2.67mm since the other investor gets $670k (25%). If the $2mm was a distribution/dividend paid over and above salary, that raises other questions. If the principles believed in the story, you would assume they would insist the $ be reinvested in the company and not distributed. (By the way, any reasonable investor would expect the principles to get paid a fair salary.)

I was speculating on what the previous poster called fuzzy math.

So, if I understand your post correctly, it sounds like you took a salary, albeit below market, and then augmented with an additional $2mm in dividends. My question was based on the fact that you would have had to pay out an additional $667k for you to get that $2mm. This resulted in the second musing that small companies looking to grow would not typically draw out an additional $2.7mm. They would reinvest earnings into the company since they believe they can get a better return investing in themselves than something else. This is why, in my experience, the BDC's, VC's, etc. look for complete commitment by the principles. Basically, if the principles don't believe enough in the story as evidenced by taking as little money as possible out of the firm, why should they (the VC/BDC's)? Now all that being said, I wish you success and I will take a quick gander at the financials. Heck it might be something I'd toss a couple of dollars at as a flyer. Unfortunately, that would be terrible news for you as I have an amazing ability to pick losers and buy high/sell low.