It seems to me that the nature of venture funding is such that it would be unusual for the investor and the CEO to be aligned with respect to the company's financial performance. This is true in public companies where activist investors push management to extract more value out of the business even when the CEO feels this will compromise employee morale and customer value.

I have seen companies in the same position described by Joel in this post where they fired the CEO, installed a "seasoned team" to get the numbers up, and then sold the carcass to BigCorp as an acquihire bailout.

So with that experience of one of the other ways this story could play out, I found Joel's story one of "success" in terms of sticking with the plan as opposed to selling out. I certainly respect that and wish him continued success.