I'd choose the first anytime because I like to create useful products whose direction I can control rather than catering to the needs of VC investors. While ve

I'd choose the first anytime because I like to create useful products whose direction I can control rather than catering to the needs of VC investors. While venture capital can be required for certain types of businesses or products having an investor requires time and energy for matters only indirectly related to your product and your customers. With venture capital investors onboard the question "How do I build a product that solves a problem for my customers?" becomes less important in favour of "How will it be able to scale?". Venture capital also means that probably you won't be running the company yourself anymore in 5-10 years. Given your motivation that can be perfectly fine but if you love what you're doing this can be a downside.