Friendly amendment: it's about access to capital relative to local costs. Arguably OP's point is that he had access to enough capital relative to his local cost

Friendly amendment: it's about access to capital relative to local costs. Arguably OP's point is that he had access to enough capital relative to his local costs in Colorado to afford to bootstrap, whereas he'd have needed VC to hit the same ratio in the Valley. Turned out well for him, and has worked for others like him. "I'm going to invest 10 billion in startups but you have to relocate" is basically what Tony Hsieh did in Las Vegas, and it... based on how rocky that got, I think it's about more than just access to capital.