Companies don't spend through all their money because a VC makes them. Companies raise VC when they see the need to spend lots of money.

The aspersion on all startups that have raised financing as likely to be unscrupulous and play fast and loose with ethics is pretty uncalled for. Because, of course venture backed startups do those things, but so do bootstrapped startups. You know what usually causes it? Desperation that you're going to fail. Bootstrapped startups can fail too, and often do. They usually just don't get big enough for anyone to notice first.

Finally there's this idea of an "acquisition graveyard". While it's true that acquisitions often go south, when they succeed the results can be great. Take Siri, for example, where the product reaches tens of millions more people than they ever would have on their own.

It seems like what DHH really objects to is taking chances, where you run the risk of failure for higher reward. And it's his right to go for the lower risk option. Raising money and doing acquisitions are just risky, not bad.