There’s no “right” way to fund a company
Your company isn’t worse or less interesting if you haven’t raised venture capital. In fact, just as fundraising doesn't equal success, VC funding isn’t right for everyone, and that’s not a reflection of your worth or an indictment of your caliber as an entrepreneur.
It just depends on what your objectives are. Yes, you’re probably not going to be able to build a billion-dollar company while bootstrapping, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a successful business or a life-changing outcome for you.
Case in point: my first company, Ksplice, didn’t raise any venture capital at all. My cofounders and I started it right after graduating MIT, with some initial funding we got from winning some business plan competitions and with a grant from the National Science Foundation. We paid ourselves nothing at first, and all lived together in a crappy little house in Cambridge, where we huddled around the dinner table every night eating meals I had prepared from discount groceries. (Which, of course, we bought in bulk.)
If we wanted to hire additional employees or buy equipment, we first had to—imagine this—make the money by selling our service to customers. Having to be frugal was frustrating, but it instilled in us some very healthy discipline—an instinct that has served us well in our subsequent companies.
