From http://www.crunchbase.com/company/spotify http://www.crunchbase.com/company/spotify I see that spotify received A LOT of funding this year, but were they f

From http://www.crunchbase.com/company/spotify http://www.crunchbase.com/company/spotify I see that spotify received A LOT of funding this year, but were they funded prior to that? This life cycle is strange to me. I understand this is talked about all of the time, but, help me : They built the product, are operating at a loss, and could not survive without funding. So they grow their user base before their business mode can afford its own infrastructure. The VC model supports the infrastructure and the user base becomes a capital good. Is it accurate to say that a funded company's value is much more complex, and abstract, than a bootstrapped company's?