“When I had the idea for resend I knew this is the type of business that requires capital I really believe I need a generous free tier because I want empower other indie hackers and I know that when they're just getting started they need a way to try it out and then if it plays out okay this is good then they'll start paying later”

Pick the funding model that fits the business, not the tribe

Zeno ran Dracula Pro as a lifestyle business on Gumroad — it couldn't scale into infrastructure. Resend was different: a generous free tier for indie hackers required capital up front, so VC was the right fit. Match the funding route to what the business actually needs, not to tribal allegiance about 'bootstrappers vs VC.'