Are you sure you need VC money?

Beyond the money, the reason to work with VCs and angels (in theory) is for their connections and deal making clout.

The last several acquisitions Google made (YouTube and JotSpot most notably) were, supposedly, driven by the VCs of those firms.

I'd be interested to hear more anecdotes from the field (or any comments debunking that), so does anyone have an experience they can share?

Potentially stupid question: If they could sell the company today at $20-30mm, why would they take a pre-money valuation of only $15mm? Or is this standard for VCs to take a 'discount' on valuation? (instant upside!)

I know YC does this, but thought that was peculiar to that situation...

TFA says "HotFeature.com has 10 employees"

The website says "This page is parked free"

Whats wrong here?