Being the cofounder of a reasonably successful bootstrapped company, I mostly agree with you, and I believe that in bubble environments such as the current one,

Being the cofounder of a reasonably successful bootstrapped company, I mostly agree with you, and I believe that in bubble environments such as the current one, funding has become an end unto itself. However, sometimes there are circumstances in which the business is better served by accelerating growth or product development, and sometimes the best way to accomplish that is to bring in capital, advisers, and networks that you normally don't have access to. There's also the case, commonly seen outside the web/mobile/social space, in which the capital requirements to produce a working demo are far in excess of what you have in your etrade account. Think nanotech, biotech, solar, telecom.