[fredkbloggs]

That might be part of it, but it also speaks to an extremely common mentality among founders that they can (and should) get a business off the ground with only a tiny fraction of the capital that's actually needed to do so. They're unwilling to bootstrap, but they also want to build a business that needs $25m of runway with $5m, and take the rest out of their employees' pockets. There are four parties to blame for this:

1. VCs, who refuse to adequately capitalize their portfolio companies.

2. The cultural environment that encourages this approach.

3. The founders, for their lack of business sense and willingness neither to bootstrap nor demand adequate startup capital.

4. The employees, for going along with it.