OTOH, the bootstrapped founders have my respect. They had their houses as collateral for their company's operating loan. They also succeeded at a much higher rate than the VC backed founders I've known.
Getting VC funding is a significant filter.
A far better filter is "do you have enough revenue that you can afford to hire employees." Self-funded entrepreneurs pass that filter, whereas VC funded ones usually don't.
The article is about employees so we don't care about the entrepreneurs that fail before they hire anybody.
That's a poor heuristic and it is why so many people continue to fail upward.
What happens? They spunk their money on kids who are playing League of Legends during meetings.
I've not often been in an investor meeting where the investors asked smart questions. They send people who aren't equipped to think about what they're shown. They think DD means making sure your accounts can't be stolen by the boss.
4.5% interest with 6.5% inflation is lower than anything we've had in the period of 1.5% - 2% inflation.
Basically, if you borrow at 4.5% today with the assumption that it is effectively a negative real rate, you will be pretty disappointed in a year.