Dividends typically have to be declared by the board when the company has enough retained earnings, so they are not a guaranteed method for repayment. You can build in mandatory dividend payments, but these returns pale in comparison to the return multiples that VCs rely upon to drive most of their portfolio’s returns. It’s essentially a few percentage points per year, when VCs tend to prefer to have that money reinvested in growth to get a shot at a large multiple exit.