This article seems to reflect a trend in the last few years of hating on VCs & high-growth startups in favor of bootstrapped lifestyle businesses. It's a choic

This article seems to reflect a trend in the last few years of hating on VCs & high-growth startups in favor of bootstrapped lifestyle businesses. It's a choice, and founders should be aware of the trade-offs. No one answer will be right for every situation. To provider some balance, the advantages of VC money: - Someone to call bullshit. It's pretty tempting as a startup CEO to drink your own kool-aid. Sometimes founders do make bad decisions and need to be called out on it. Sometimes, they're so bad that they need replacing. Experienced VCs can provide perspective here, and generally do seem to err on the side of retaining founder-CEOs. http://www.bhorowitz.com/why_we_prefer_founding_ceos http://www.bhorowitz.com/why_we_prefer_founding_ceos . - Let you start capital-intensive businesses and take huge risks. To me, it's amazing that investors are willing to put tens of millions of dollars in the hands of a bunch of 25 year olds. But, empirically, it works. I've been that 25-year old founder. I don't want to grind away in an industry for 40 years. At this stage of my life, I'm not particularly excited by running a lifestyle business that returns a steady income. I can do that later, if I have a wife and kids. Right now, I have the energy and desire to work very hard, and I'd prefer to swing for the fences in an attempt to make an impact on the world. VC funding lets me do that with the potential for incredible responsibility and outsized returns, especially compared to friends who are working 80 hours a week in banks and law firms. You only live once. Decide what makes you happy and pursue it.