ya, sufficient capital to get all the things up and running, and being able to hire smart people seems to be a prerequisite. Otherwise, with just the founder and couple of guys working in a dorm room or limited budget, this doesn't sound like a good idea. In fact, it's probably a very bad idea in such a scenario.

Why do you say this? I think too many people are focusing on the game the way VCs and SV play it.

Because here is what VCs do: they forward some money to you, they sign the investment agreement. Done. They don't need to do any more work except get progress updates from you (basically they read a single email) once every couple months. If they're on the board they'll meet with you for a few hours every month. That is not a lot of work per startup.

A founder needs to put in at least 8 hours a day for a single startup.