I'm planning on starting a company within the next few years. I would not do it if VC money weren't on the table. I have a family, bills to pay, exactly $0 in generational wealth, but I'm well paid.

I do not have the excess capital to throw at working on problems at the scale that I want to or in the segments that I'm interested in. Any money that I spent to work on these companies would be gambling with the future financial stability I can provide for my son. Providing him with the safety net necessary to pursue atypical career paths or interests is one of my top priorities.

VC funding is the only way that starting a company is possible for me. The existence of VC funding is the only reason I'm even ideating about these large problems. It's an equalizer that puts those of us without the same set of options at a level playing field.

There could be other financing options that wouldn't hinge on astronomic outcomes to be sustainable. We could have crowdfunded incubators where potential customers provide seed capital and sign on to sponsor the project, and imho it would align incentives a lot better than "maximizing shareholder value" with bait and switch business models.

Of course it is. Software has a very high margin. You could get by with a skeleton staff, and make a nice profit.

Some software. Do you think companies catering to public sector or the enterprise are high margin in the first few years?

Consumer apps can often get away with scaling ARR and slow incremental growth, but many of these are only feasible due to the existence of VC backed SaaS.

It also has a high start up cost—meaning the owners would have to be able to support themselves, their families, and pay for whatever costs the company needs until people are willing to pay for the software. That is, if such a day ever comes.

Not necessarily, you can take another job to pay the bills. Or if you're in the UK we have dedicated benefits schemes to fund people starting a business.

“Relatively small number of subscriptions” may not even pay for a skeleton staff, let alone leave a nice profit afterward.