[rzodkiew]

It's all about what you define as a success.

Personally, I think that owner of a bakery on a corner of my street that is visited by all the locals is successful. Is that a success as measured by the VCs? Probably not. Pinboard is an example of that in tech.

Also, yeah raising capital is helpful if you can do it in a smart way, and use that as a leverage to continue what you are doing. That usually means not listening to the VCs, as their goal is for you to grow as fast as you can and keep raising bigger rounds, so they can report how great of investors they are, not for you to build a sustainable (successful) business. You can see that replayed over and over.

Is Whatsapp successful? It was definitely raising quite a bit of capital, but still ended up being eaten by a well-funded competitor. I'd say that when you have VCs on your board who will actively push you to sell, so they can register profit, it increases chances of you being swallowed, by someone bigger. Unless you're saying that being eaten up, means outcompeted and pushed towards bankruptcy.