I like that you are not dismissing bootstrapping, but just wishing that people dismissive of VM should have that disclaimer.

I just wanted to provide a counter-example: Bootstrapping worked for me, but I was ready to live happily on 1800€ per month (France, where it’s reasonable), and remain small. It also required being able to part from anyone who would think 500€ a day for a consultant is reasonable, or that 20€/u/m is ok for a SAAS app.