I remember reading an interview with Pierre Omidyar (founder of Ebay) raised $5M from Benchmark, opened a separate bank account, and placed the $5M in there, un

I remember reading an interview with Pierre Omidyar (founder of Ebay) raised $5M from Benchmark, opened a separate bank account, and placed the $5M in there, untouched to this day because eBay was profitable from the very beginning. He raised the money from Benchmark because he needed help recruiting executives to help run and expand the company. His recruitment efforts before that had been largely unsuccessful, and he openly admitted that no one took him seriously before he raised money. Yes, the internet was a new and unproven phenomenon at the time, but there are other reasons to hitch up with a VC other than money.