Here you go, straight from an interview with Canadian VC Tim Jackson:

We saw 300 companies last year [and funded two] and the vast majority should never have been looking for venture capital. Our advice is just go and start the company. Go and sell this. If you have something people will buy, they will partner with you and you can build a business.

We hear these comments, in one form or another, over and over from investors of all types.  Too many entrepreneurs get overly focused on the pursuit of funding and forget that many great companies were started on a shoestring, bootstrapped through early sales, then became attractive to outside investors with a proven product and market.

Something to think about.