'he generally took a dim view of VCs and preferred to bootstrap"
that's pretty counter-intuitive in today's bubble-blowing tech climate. we praise companies for raising the most money from the hippest VCs rather than customer retention, technology, and market position
After the first dotcom bubble just the opposite was praised arguably to the extreme. The answer is somewhere in the middle - focusing on profit from day 1 can stop you from doing things, but taking VC money from day 1 with no plan for revenue is also potentially fatal.
that's pretty counter-intuitive in today's bubble-blowing tech climate. we praise companies for raising the most money from the hippest VCs rather than customer retention, technology, and market position