Justin Jackson shared some personal insights and lessons learned in this post — and quoted Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom saying:

A founder is spending 60 months of their best years in their startup (instead of their career). That is a substantial upfront investment; it’s like a seed round, but instead of money, it’s your life.

And the bootstrappers dilemma…

Can I get this to scale, while paying my bills, without burning out? This is why many founders end up raising venture capital.