[ta1234567890]

> Wouldn't a smart competitor wait to see what's working from a bootstrapped pioneer then pass them by with tons of VC cash as rocket fuel?

Sure, but 1) not all businesses are VC-worthy - there are a lot of things that only make sense if you bootstrap or raise little money, 2) even if you raise VC money from the start, others can come along, copy and use your learning experience to their advantage, for example Lyft/Uber, and the great number of their copycats all over the world in different geographical markets. There are companies that base their whole business in this model, like RocketInternet (they see who's growing fast then copy in a different market, then maybe even sell to the original company). Groupon even turned it around and used it to fuel their international growth by buying all their copycats and integrating them into their main organization.