I suspect there is a massive, unexploited gap in the current venture model (with YC and Google leading the way in exploiting it), which will soon start to rapidly close as the opportunities become clear, and a new set of investment skills is developed.
The current economic turmoil may even help speed the process up somewhat, as investors seek to minimize risk.
The problem still largely remains though. A venture backed company still has a lot more money than a bootstrapped one, and that still translates into a big advantage, even though database software is now free rather than $100k.