It didn't used to much in the late-PC rah-rah of the 80s or the dot-com 90s, but I understand it's increasingly common now. Not wanting to be beholden to the VC

It didn't used to much in the late-PC rah-rah of the 80s or the dot-com 90s, but I understand it's increasingly common now. Not wanting to be beholden to the VC's growth paradigm handcuffs[1], especially going into an economic downturn[2], and wanting to share a "taste" all the way around as we expand are two of the reasons I've been trying very hard to avoid VC this time to the party. [1] The VCs are bound to an business model and we who take their money are bound to support their outcomes. That's not a bad thing, but it constrains options. [2] I found out early on (this is about to be a conclusion based on extremely limited data) that any VC that hadn't himself been through three down-turns, two as a VC, were 1000% worse than useless on the board. You don't want to get stuck to the hip with a wet-behind-the-ears rockstar-wannabe VClet going into a downturn.