We devote a lot of attention to Startups here @ CloudAve, and it’s no secret that some of us, e.g. Ben and myself are infatuated by the bootstrapping model: going out on one’s own, risking one’s own financial well-being, but then reaping the rewards without having giving up control and major equity.  As in .. old-fashioned entrepreneurship, which was the only form of entrepreneurship before the VC industry was born.

But I would not write off VC as a category, nor would I paint it useless.  If you're in Material Science, Bio-tech..etc, you'll need heavy capital, it's likely your startup can’t be launched without VC.  In software VC Funding may just be the catalist for faster growth, but it's more of a choice - a choice of business models.

That said, I think TechCrunch may just have ignited a storm (hey, time to move off the TC50-Arrington-Calacanis angle) with this guest post today:

What Have VCs Really Done for Innovation?

Luckily enough we have a few VCs as Guest Authors, so I don’t have to move a finger, just sit back, relax, and watch the upcoming blogstorm.

Update: Here we go: See Chris Yeh's rebuttal right here, and another post at TechCrunch:From Nothing To Something. How To Get There. Oh, and let's not forget about this tweet by Paul Kedrosky.