Equity in their business? You can create vtlynch LLC tomorrow if you wanted to and if you found someone to buy it, you could sell equity in it. What does that have to do with personal wealth?
That's exactly how I read it. Taking on debt or selling equity are some of the most common ways of financing businesses. I could see if "take on debt" was not in that sentence but even then many (non-VC funded too!) businesses sell ownership in their business to finance it.