Venture is not a dependency to get off the ground. It's a very reasonable method to fund growth. The hard costs of getting started have radically declined over the past 15 years (see http://davidcrow.ca/article/1804/seed-stage-fin... and specifically Joe Kraus http://bnoopy.typepad.com/bnoopy/2005/06/its_a_... & Daniel Drouel http://www.montrealstartup.com/?p=39. I think this is where a lot of entrepreneurs go wrong. Only in very rare cases do entrepreneurs raise money to “start” something. @dossip for example seed funded Workbrain with $1M from friends and family. Generally you raise money to enable growth.

And the challenge presented by “organically” funded teams is being able to step away from the cash cow to effectively grow their new crop. There's an opportunity to help fund consulting transitions into product shops.