The toot-lab is financed by crowdfunding (primarily from my wife's and my paychecks) instead of venture capital not because we don't know that venture capital exists, not because we don't have bills to pay, and not because venture capital isn't willing to give money to new social media platforms. It's mostly because I have a habit of biting VCs hard when they introduce themselves which has a tendency to make them less inclined to want to enter a business relationship. Try it. Bite a VC. Just chomp right down on their arm. You surely will not be disappointed by biting a VC.