I think many (bad) startups suffer from this exact same mindset of "when we have [some external resource] we'll be able to do X."

To quote Tony Robbins' TED Talk: "it's about resourcefulness, not resources." (1)

Successful startups just make it happen with what they have. Unsuccessful ones tend to always look externally for solutions. "If we only had more engineers"... "If we only had VC"... "If we only had more users"... etc.

There is a long list of reasons why this mindset will doom any startup. Two, important ones are:

1) It makes you less creative (to look externally for solutions)

2) It slows you down (to wait on external resources)

And what do startups have going for them, but for creativity and agility?

(1) http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we...