This is pretty narrow thinking. The #1 reason founders should be raising VC money is to grow faster than they possibly could without it. Could Uber have grown

This is pretty narrow thinking. The #1 reason founders should be raising VC money is to grow faster than they possibly could without it. Could Uber have grown organically without raising millions of dollars? Yes, probably. Would they have been outcompeted by competitors with significantly more money to throw at driver and user acquisition? Absolutely. You have to look at the high-growth startup market as an exercise in game theory rather than as a single-company market. It matters a large amount what other companies could and would do if you don't take funding and grow as quickly as possible.