Everything depends on how the shares are leveraged. I am ok with dilution if the end-game leads to a seismic change in valuation. Shares reserved for partnerships could be one of those scenarios.

One of Sun Tsu’s many jewels:

“The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

If BP shows up at the gate, a high probability, we would be ready to receive them with shares in reserve…an unassailable position, and a higher prospect of peace, not war. Both sides win in this scenario.