We've come a long way since the days when we traded oxen for corn...

so why do we still barter for equity?

Bartering economies break, and one of the many reasons they do is that you can't find two people that value something the exact same. That's why currency and the free market come in handy...draw a supply and demand curve and everything gets a market value. In theory.

In practice, this only works when everyone has open access to the market and and are equally informed about the good or service (quantity). They also have to agree on how to assign value (price).

So when we sit around a table as founders and investors and trade experience for technology, capital for ideas, time for influence, does it feel like an open and transparent conversation where everyone is agreeable as to how to value each other? "Open," "transparent," and "agreeable" probably won't be the adjectives at the top of the list...

So if the free market can't free us from bartering for equity, then we'll have to look for something else.