Some Indian start-ups shun funding in bid to retain independence

One more company that comes to my mind is HasGeek(http://hasgeek.com/). HasGeek is definitely the best thing to have happened to the entire scenario. And they are based on pretty much the same lines, which is they are totally self sufficient.

For all those people with MegaCorp day jobs. You can do a lot of low bandwidth side projects to start up. If you are interested and persist enough then much can be achieved in spare time, both learning and money wise.

I do however think that when startups have proven themselves, and have a steady cash flow, but want to race to the top, VC funding may be the way to go.

I personally experienced this with a startup with a very healthy balance sheet. The reason for VC funding was pretty straightforward "We need money to expand internationally".

Local market dominance is usually quite possible with bootstrapping however international expansion poses a totally different challenge (first challenge: hire an experienced management team for it..).

VC funding plays a big role when it comes to the big guns. If you want to be the next Mc Donalds or the next Hyatt, it may be important.

Local market dominance is also great while being bootstrapped, if you want to play acquire-me, but that could just as easily be stomp all over me.

I guess that's what makes this business so exciting ;)

I regret giving them a page view.

What I've observed is that friends in India are very tight -- they'll do almost anything for each other. And if you have a friend with a startup, you'd certainly lend them some money.

So, they may not need VC money, and may not need angels, but they do potentially have a lot of "micro-angels" to raise funds through.

My skype: carl.theteuton