[mindcrime]

Strictly speaking, raising VC money isn't taking on debt. You're selling equity and if the company fails you don't - as a general rule - repay the investors anything.

That said, I agree with your overall point about not needing to raise millions of dollars to start a company. That's one way of doing things, but hardly the only way. Another choice would be to just take a regular job and start your company as a nights and weekends side project (deal with any potential IP issues, of course), or do consulting in your area of business and gradually transition from a service company to a product company. I'm sure there are others.

[jedicoffee]

I agree, I may have been a bit open ended with my previous statement.