Anatomy of an (un)fundable startup

Also, don't have been in business long.

If you bootstrap, quietly doubling year after year, remaining profitable or break even, then decide the market is now ready for what you do so it's time to go big ... you likely won't get funded. You've proven ability at the wrong model, when investors want a blowout. A lack of history lets you sell the exponential growth story. History makes them ask why you didn't already have it.