I actually think bootstrapping can be great because it reduces the number of major constituencies driving the company by 1. If you bootstrap, you have:

* company owners

* customers

* employees

If you take on investment, now you have investors in the mix too, and they don't always have the same goals as the others. But they often have a pretty large voice.

That said, if you are bootstrapping but not paying employees, that's fraud. If you are bootstrapping and not paying co-founders, well, that's not great. But if co-founders know this going in and have regular milestones that need to be hit, I'm okay with that. It can be a great way to push the business forward without the distraction of fundraising (which is a huge effort).