&gt; the difference between building a billion dollar company 
&gt; and building a 10 million dollar company is marginal. You
&gt; still need to constantly raise money...<p>Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze.  The biggest difference I see is the expectations and control of investors.  Most of our Backblaze team was involved with a startup called MailFrontier which raised $22.5 million over four years selling almost 90 percent of the company to the VCs.  The VCs removed the founder CEO (my partner), installed a puppet CEO that did whatever they asked, and the VCs eventually forced us to sell in a way that basically returned them their original investment.<p>So Backblaze was a visceral reaction to that experience of losing that control.  It&#x27;s the same team, but we all agreed to go a year without salary to jump start it without selling control.  To this day, the only people who sit and vote on the board of directors are Backblaze employees and founders.<p>The lack of cash meant slower growth, there is no doubt about it.  But it is a profoundly different company, and a profoundly different experience.  We make decisions that are good for our business and good for our employees, not to massage the egos of a bunch of spoiled VCs.  And along the way, the Backblaze founders and employees own the vast majority of the company. Most importantly, nobody can force us to sell.  I like my job and I like my coworkers, and I make a fine salary here.  Why does everything have to be about the winning top score no matter how unpleasant and then ending the experience?  I want to enjoy the ride and keep it going.