We are seeing giant rounds with amount not seen before. Seed rounds of $10M+ are common today and round size is becoming a vanity metric.
If you are raising a round, a few rules to remember regardless of when/how much/who you raised from:
only raise if you have to: the goal of raising a round is to put more oil on the fire. When you raise, you should have an idea, a team and a working product. If you do not need to raise, don’t. If you can bootstrap, do it (the best example being Nikita Bier with Gas).
do not raise too much money: raising a lot of money means giving up a lot of equity. You should position yourself to keep the majority after series A. If you give up more than 50% of your company, you are no longer in control, the investors are and will not hesitate to sell or fire you. Control and ownership over money.
raise enough money: not raising enough means you will need have to cut corners, hire B talent (which is the biggest trap) or raise a bridge round later (at unknown terms). And if you fail to raise a bridge round (because you do not have enough traction or the market condition changed), you may have to find an exit and explore selling (advice on this here)
I have seen very talented folks giving up more than 50% of their company in returns of a big investment. A few years later, the investors sold when they received the first good offer. The acquirer stock underperformed massively in the months post acquisition and their payout was significantly less than initially planned.
I have seen founders being fired from their own company because some partners in VC firms do not like them. It happens at every company stage, from series A to tech juggernauts (the most famous being the Kalanick and Gurley story and the Uber coup).
Always stay disciplined.
As an early-stage founder, you are not competing against massive companies, but against a (hopefully mediocre) PM at a big tech company working on a feature while sipping some matcha latte. Focus on execution, keep shipping and only when you have a good product, raise to accelerate.