It's not a "regular" company, because it's still raising angel investment, presumably from the tech/startup ecosystem.
A more common route for non-tech-startup companies is to get money via debt - in other words, borrow money from a bank or financiers. That's a different model to with different risk/reward characteristics, but it's how most non-innovative entrepreneurship is done, I believe - things like building restaurants, buildings, etc.
This is indeed a "middle path" in terms of raising money by selling equity, but selling a smaller amount of it for less money, which keeps more ownership stake and control in the hands of the founders, but necessitates slower spending cause they raised less capital.
> What do you think angel investors are if not financiers, and what do you think those investments are if not debt?
No, those are equity investments, usually. It's a different thing with different rules.
Equity investments give the angel investors ownership of the company - equity. This is either direct selling of shares of a company to angels, or (more typically nowadays) via instruments like convertible notes, which convert to equity in future funding rounds. Other than this ownership stake, they are typically not entitled to anything else.
Debt investments, on the other hand, don't give any ownership to the financier. They only entitle them to receive some future payments from the borrower.
These are completely different things, and large companies often use a mix of both. But in startup-land, the typical investment is done via equity.
A more common route for non-tech-startup companies is to get money via debt - in other words, borrow money from a bank or financiers. That's a different model to with different risk/reward characteristics, but it's how most non-innovative entrepreneurship is done, I believe - things like building restaurants, buildings, etc.
This is indeed a "middle path" in terms of raising money by selling equity, but selling a smaller amount of it for less money, which keeps more ownership stake and control in the hands of the founders, but necessitates slower spending cause they raised less capital.