But now you can create some AI generated slop in a day that used to take months. Being an indie hacker used to be a sort of badge of honour, now it's where everyone starts.

I think the VC-backed companies who have budgets to do actual marketing, actual sales, actual outreach beyond "I have a good following on X, I'm gonna sell them stuff" will win in the end.

As a customer, for me I don't care whether the company is profitable, I care about whether it works, whether it's in my budget, whether the company will be around in 2 years regardless of if the founder loses their passion for it.

Bootstrapped startups go out of business.

While there is a large gap in the two models in terms of finances, operations and everything else, trying to argue that customers should pick your company over another purely on the basis of the funding model shows that you are either deliberately being insincere or know nothing about the industry, neither of which are great selling points.

If you want to compete, do it on the basis of features and value.