This approach is more common. It's called starting and running a small business (that maybe someday grows naturally into a big business). Small businesses are w

This approach is more common. It's called starting and running a small business (that maybe someday grows naturally into a big business). Small businesses are way more prevalent than startups, even in tech. Small business loans are orders of magnitude more voluminous than VC and Angel investments. However, remember that we're in a VC funded forum right now, so we're in a bubble where the growth-over-profits is portrayed as equal or preferred to simple slow growth profit. I'd highly recommend checking out your local small business owners' group or meetupss. They are just as smart as you are, but just never got sucked into this bubble here.