Don’t throw prudence and resourcefulness out the window, though. You don’t need to spend all your money in 18 months. You’re a startup. It may take years, possibly a decade or longer, for your company to take off. Do your research, and find VCs that can handle a flexible timeframe if things take longer than expected.
They almost always do.
Michael Ortner is CEO of Capterra. He and his cofounders launched the company in 1999, hoping to find VC funding. When they weren’t able to get funding, they were forced to fund the company the old fashioned way, with revenue from customers (and a bit of credit card debt). Today, the team feels it was the best thing that could have happened to the company.