Do Seattle VCs Suck?
techflash.com
techflash.com
If you whine about being rejected by VCs, odds are you bought into the " OMFG I NEED TO RAISE CAPITAL LIKE THE COOL TWITTER DIGG KIDS", when in actual reality you don't. You most likely need to finish getting your prototype ready and have some trial customers. Also keep in mind, few markets and ideas are "big enough" or even warrant VC funding.
"_______ VCs suck" is a meme I could go without.
That's pretty hyperbolic.
There are countless scenarios where a company simply cannot get built with outside capital. Some problems need bigger teams or more time. Some teams don't have salesfolks (and need 'em). Some teams don't have deep pools of savings or require a higher-than-ramen burn rate to get to market.
And there is a BIG gap between having some "trial customers" and having a company that can afford minimal paychecks. Any way you slice it, you need money. If you don't have the cash or don't have the testicular fortitude to dump your life savings into your business, you have to get it from somewhere else. I'm not saying that some people don't mistakenly pursue VC when they shouldn't. I'm saying that you shouldn't paint it with as broad a brush as you have.
As a very concrete/personal example, RescueTime would simply not have survived without VCs (who have been awesome to work with, by the way).
The ultimate way to prove your idea is good, is to get traction. The ultimate way to prove it is sustainable is to become ramen profitable and the best way to prove it needs VC money is to show that your current staff just cannot handle the amount of customers that keep coming day in/day out.