Another useful metaphor is that venture capital is rocket fuel. It's not useful if you're not building a rocket. And VCs only really want to give rocket fuel to

Another useful metaphor is that venture capital is rocket fuel. It's not useful if you're not building a rocket. And VCs only really want to give rocket fuel to rocket builders, anyway. VCs will be angry if you end up building a car or a plane instead of a rocket, no matter how awesome the car or plane that you built is, because they promised their investors (LPs) that they would only invest in rockets. But if you've clearly already built a rocket (perhaps after years of bootstrapping, and it's now obvious you can reach orbit -- if only you had enough fuel -- then venture capital, err rocket fuel, might make sense.)