[beat]

Well, it depends on your ambition. As Jason Cohen put it, "Do you want to be rich, or do you want to be king?" They require (or at least benefit from) different approaches. If you want to be rich, maximize growth. This means accepting funding whenever it can increase your growth rate. If you want to be king, avoid investment if you possibly can, and focus on profitability.

"Rich" isn't just about making money, or maximizing money. You can get rich as king, too. Rich is about creating the largest, most powerful, most influential business you can, taking the idea to its max. But if you go this route, with lots of investment, you must pay off for your investors. You must have an exit strategy.

"King" is about control. It's about building the company you've always wanted to work at, and just working there forever. That's what 37signals did. They created an ideal company with a unique culture, and incidentally got rich in the process, but it's not nearly as big as it could be if they pushed. But that's okay... they love their product.