you aren’t immune from these problems just because you aren’t taking VC funding.

Most bootstrapped companies need some initial funding which usually comes from the founders bank account, with the idea being that’s it.

But it can be tempting to accelerate your bootstrapped growth by taking debt financing (credit cards, mortgages and other personally guaranteed loans)

The difference is that in most of these cases you are personally liable whereas you can walk away from VC funded businesses.