Of the many strings attached to other people's money, the most constraining may be the pressure to provide a quick return. This balance gets much harder to maintain once you bring outside investors into the picture. For example, more than a year ago we began planning our expansion to other major tech markets. We did months of painstaking research in order to maximize our chances of success, dipped our toes into the water by opening two Washington-area offices, and finally took the real plunge with an Atlanta branch. Few investors would have had the patience to follow that process, and if short-term profits were our main concern we would not have had the resources to look years ahead.
Steady growth beats a rush to gold.
There have been some spectacular successes by entrepreneurs who gambled everything on bleeding-edge technology, and probably an equal number of spectacular failures. I think that level of risk is unnecessary. The highs and lows, including rapid hiring and firing, can be a lot of pain and agony. It's easier to combine making money with having fun. When I started my company, the point wasn't to stop working any time soon.