Bootstrapper Matt Mullenweg takes a great attitude to investor capital, which he writes about in a recent post.

It's a common misconception that bootstrappers have a total aversion to investor capital. Rather, the bootstrapper knows that capital is just one of many interventions available to her. Applied at the right time (post VoD) and in the right dose (minority stake), it can be just the thing needed for the venture's next stage.

By taking your venture through the Ideation and Valley of Death stages without investor capital, you take full advantage of a key bootstrap principle: necessity is the mother of innovation.

When the organization emerges from the VoD, it has clarity about its "business model." By having the discipline to only consider investor money post VoD, the bootstrapper takes advantage of another key principle: money is an amplifier (and that's about all it is!).