[BaseballPhysics]

Once you take seed funding you're locked into a raise and re-raise treadmill until you grow sufficiently to find an exit. VCs/seed shops aren't there to help you build a lifestyle business. They're trying to either fail fast or get a 10x multiple and move on, which means either an IPO or (far more likely these days) an acquisition.

[nerdponx]

Maybe I'm a rarity in this, but I actually prefer paying for services that are not VC funded. That way I feel like I am less likely to have the rug pulled out from under me.

[triyambakam]

Geckoboard is an interesting opposite example of this. They took a seed round more than ten years ago and have been slowly and steadily maintaining the business, resisting further rounds. I don't know their finances but they seem to continue to be doing well.

[BaseballPhysics]

And that does happen occasionally, but they're rare and it doesn't go on forever.

Bandcamp was similarly private for 15 years after taking a few rounds of funding, but they eventually got acquired, and I guarantee you that's because those investors pushed for an exit while the projected future revenues of the company justified a higher valuation.

I myself worked for a company that was private for 12 years after seed funding and five rounds of VC capital. But eventually we were pushed into a (poorly conceived) acquisition.

The merry-go-round always stops. It's just a matter of time.