You absolutely can ruin yourself doing it. The more outside capital you have, the larger the expectations of eventual returns are. If I take $100M in risk capit

You absolutely can ruin yourself doing it. The more outside capital you have, the larger the expectations of eventual returns are. If I take $100M in risk capital, I have to surpass $250M in returns or it was a failure. Simply doubling the money, even if done in mere years, is a failure. So from that perspective, investor money is actually worse than loans. I agree that loans are good for leverage, and banks are much less likely than investors to change the terms because they are senior and covered somewhat from downside. Investor money very much can ruin a perfectly good business with outsized expectations right when it starts working.