> We hear of a startup’s first funding round, the follow on, the next one, and one more. ... On occasion, we hear underdog stories of startups that bootstrapped to notable success, with zero funding rounds and little pomp and circumstance.

This is a side point but I have always wondered why companies publicize their funding rounds and why anybody outside the company would care? Well apart from the parasites who use those announcements as an acuse to cold call the CEO about mobile phone service, accounting software, and whatever.

Announcing important milestones (key customers, important new features, etc) makes sense. Raising money is just part of making those milestones and to me makes about as much sense as announcing a git push.