[brightball]

I don't see why this is a surprise. From my observation, there are typically two types of startups out there.

1. Startup with a clear revenue model created by generating tangible value for businesses.

2. Startup without a clear revenue model that is doing something interesting and will probably be acquired if successful.

The first is a successful business like MailChimp that can grow itself from it's own revenues and doesn't need funding. The second is the type of business that needs funding because they are essentially investing in building technology to sell to a larger company OR are building a large pool of users to sell to a larger company.