I think he meant funding from already profitable products. If that is what he meant, that is true. Zoho quietly got funding from our own earlier products, which got funding from our even earlier products, and so on, until we reach http://www.webnms.com/snmp/ which was bootstrapped ... :-)
Right-o. Not meant to be derogatory. It's a great story. It's just a helluva lot LONGER story than most people make it out to be.
Funding (in times of success) is an accelerant. Zoho had funding, which fueled growth. It wasn't VC funding, but cash is cash. I'd MUCH rather take cash from previous successes (and have in the past) than from VCs, but it's not entirely true to look at Zoho as a bootstrapped business, especially if you're thinking of it as a model.
VC funded businesses are a long road. Bootstrapped businesses are a much longer road.
Source? Or is this just conjecture on your part?