Sula, unless you purchased in a public offering or exercised warrants, the money that you invested in POET, like that of the most of the rest of us, did not go to the company.  It went into the pockets of people like Jack the Bear!  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Of course it's true that when we buy, we prop up the share price making future offerings possible at better prices, but the relationship to actually financing the company is somewhat attenuated.

For my part, and I suspect the part of many others, the excitement of being involved before a young company proves itself is a big attraction.  Also, there's always the chance one could wait too long before investing (FOMO).  But what has happened to many of us is that we have quite a little hill to climb before we recoup what we have invested to date.  Although not the smartest thing, I'm okay with that, because this investment has been very interesting in so many ways, this board being paramount among them.  

The conundrum is that if the company is going to be as big a success as many profess, then there's likely lots of room to run once, for example, this deal closes.  I prefer to be in before that, but Sparta's point makes sense, too.  Still, it's not all about the dollars and cents.