I might speak for some of those critical by saying that you got my attention with the "bootstrap" hook but immediately lost it when I saw the funding. At that point I had a hard time believing and following the rest. This might seem like a small nit, but it comes to the honesty and intent of the piece. Good job getting our attention tho. And pay attention to the details.

For what it's worth, I think people are nit picking rather than crying foul. It's a great story, thanks for sharing it!

I hadn't commented on this thread previously, but I did flag it due to the title. It just wasn't honest.

Selling a double digit % of the company to investors and then calling it bootstrapped while promoting it here is hard to defend.

seems more like a little bit of both.