Bootstrapping vs venture capital: the real trade-offs for founders

In September 2021, Intuit agreed to buy Mailchimp for $12bn in cash and stock. The email marketing company had been founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius and, according to data provider PitchBook, had never taken a penny of outside funding, Fortune reported at the time. No seed round, no Series A, no board seats handed to investors. The founders sold a company they still owned. Stories like…