if it matters, i doubt many early start-ups worried about or even used version control. we used dropbox when starting out because we never worked on the same code, and we had to hit deadlines quickly. as it turns out, we got funded, and we took the time to polish the code (and implement version control) when we had the opportunity. a vast majority of founders of yc funded start-ups i've asked have told me they did not use version control early on (ie justin.tv and airbnb didn't, although i think reddit always did).

i know for a fact that youtube for example did not touch version control early on. you should definitely appreciate speed when you're starting because your ideas could change (and your code).

it's a trade off, and eventually you'll start doing stuff like unit testing. at some point, the more time you spend perfecting your code, the less time you can spend prototyping and changing the idea if it needs to be changed. i don't think it's comparable to a "wear your seatbelt, you should ALWAYS be using version control in EVERY situation" thing, you should really think about whether you need it. you should worry about hard disk failures, so do a back up every once in a while with a flash drive or dropbox at the very least. but version control has its own learning curve.