Learn from my mistake. Unless you're already financially secure (meaning you could stop working and live your current lifestyle for several years) then my advice is to take the money while you can OR to leverage that valuation to pocket a few million $ (by selling equity).
I'm doing great with my current startups now but several years ago I founded a very promising startup which almost immediately got many acquisition offers in the high six figures and low seven figures. I, of course, took all of this to mean that we were onto something and were sure to get very wealthy in short order.
That didn't happen. What our app did got simply duplicated as a feature by an industry leader in software for our target vertical and that startup rapidly went from extremely profitable to bust.
TL;DR: Unless you're financially secure take the money.
I'm doing great with my current startups now but several years ago I founded a very promising startup which almost immediately got many acquisition offers in the high six figures and low seven figures. I, of course, took all of this to mean that we were onto something and were sure to get very wealthy in short order.
That didn't happen. What our app did got simply duplicated as a feature by an industry leader in software for our target vertical and that startup rapidly went from extremely profitable to bust.
TL;DR: Unless you're financially secure take the money.