on faustian bargains

I have collected a number of articles on venture capital, bootstrapping a company vs. external investment, etc.

An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists by Nick Tredennick

10 Reasons to Shy Away from Venture Capital from AVC Venture Capital (more from AVC)

Joel Spolsky's Fixing Venture Capital and on bootstrapping versus external investment, Ben and Jerry's vs. Amazon

Eric Sink's Finance for Geeks (it is relevant: scroll down to the Finance section, but the whole article is well worth reading)

Paul Graham's Unified Theory of VC Suckage

Philip Greenspun's humorous essay about ArsDigita ArsDigita: From Start-Up to Bust-Up

Yes the majority of these articles are negative, and my bias is probably clear from the title. This post may be setting me up for a future haunting, but I think it is important to be aware of the risks and possible consequences of using other people's money. Nothing is ever "free".