[soneca]

Two issues with that:

i) bootstrapping is different from self-funding. All of them might start with self-funding, but bootstrapping is getting revenue to fund the startup. Not the founder's money to fund it.

ii) VC's money are not their own money in totality. They raise funds with outside investors and they decide where to invest other people's money too.

[jacquesm]

Bootstrapping is usually defined as 'pulling yourself up by your shoelaces' so using the revenues to fund the growth, but the prototype and initial capital is almost always provided from another source (savings, loans).

Not all VCs take outside investors, but plenty do.