My last company progressed essentially as you described. We went from nothing to acquisition on $0 of outside investment and essentially $0 of inside investmen

My last company progressed essentially as you described. We went from nothing to acquisition on $0 of outside investment and essentially $0 of inside investment. So I am here to say that it is possible. However, there are a number of reasons taking VC money would be "desirable or necessary." Here are some I can think of: 1) Good VCs are often hooked into potential acquisition targets. They can get you noticed and possibly help you fetch a higher price. 2) If you need good targeted seed traffic to get you going, that might take a substantial amount of money. This can take many forms, e.g. a PR firm, adwords, traditional advertising, etc. 3) If you have a working customer acquisition channel that requires money, and more money will help you grow faster, you might want to do it just to grow faster, outpace competition, etc.