Do You Really Even Need VC?

20 years in startups. %50 of failures were due to bad decisions forced on the startup by the VC. Sometimes due to conflicts of interest: "we're giving you $X but you must spend $Y on portfolio company Z's product" (that doesn't do what you need.)

The other %50 were due to fights between the founders, and of those, I'd say about half of that was due to meddling of VCs.

Most of this was in the era before Angels when the path was FFF/Incubator -> Series A with VCs.

I've never experienced significant problems with an Angel, and have had a lot of positive experiences. OF all the VC partners I've met over the years, none that I knew well enough to have an opinion of, were people I consider trustworthy.