This is a paranoid worldview. Of course angels operate in self-interest, just as you should. It's unfortunate if you get taken advantage of by an unscrupulous investor, but it doesn't make angels evil in general.
At the end of the day angels (and VCs) are handing you wads of cash to build your company. This might save you years of scrimping and saving just to have enough savings to bootstrap for a year or two (and forget about it if you have any serious capital expenditures). Should they just be cutting 5, 6, 7 figure checks out of the goodness of their heart? No, it's your responsibility as an entrepreneur to know what you are getting into. And I should add that that is much easier today with the wealth of good solid information about term sheets, etc, that is available today on the web for free compared to as recently as 10 years ago where you basically had to learn things the old-fashioned way (ie. personal connections, apprenticeships).
That said, yeah, bootstrapping is better if you can possibly do it, because you take all the risk and you reap all the rewards. But to say that the very idea of aspiring to build a large company is koolaid sold by angels is ridiculous. It's the fundamental silicon valley dream; painted by history, not some snake oil pitch.
At the end of the day angels (and VCs) are handing you wads of cash to build your company. This might save you years of scrimping and saving just to have enough savings to bootstrap for a year or two (and forget about it if you have any serious capital expenditures). Should they just be cutting 5, 6, 7 figure checks out of the goodness of their heart? No, it's your responsibility as an entrepreneur to know what you are getting into. And I should add that that is much easier today with the wealth of good solid information about term sheets, etc, that is available today on the web for free compared to as recently as 10 years ago where you basically had to learn things the old-fashioned way (ie. personal connections, apprenticeships).
That said, yeah, bootstrapping is better if you can possibly do it, because you take all the risk and you reap all the rewards. But to say that the very idea of aspiring to build a large company is koolaid sold by angels is ridiculous. It's the fundamental silicon valley dream; painted by history, not some snake oil pitch.