I think the author misunderstands the reason entrepreneurs are annoyed by the tech press' preoccupation with VC-funded startups.

Bootstrapping today is much less likely to be a failure-to-raise-VC than a conscious choice. Capital efficiency has skyrocketed but the press clings to the idea that capital needs legitimize companies.

There are plenty of other publicly-accessible metrics to identify bootstrapped "companies that are relevant and interesting." Unfortunately, most reporters remain ignorant of them.

So here's a few:

- Traffic: Quantcast, Alexa Rank, Hitwise - Traffic Value: SEMRush, AHrefs, Spyfu - Authority Metrics (links): SEOMoz, Blekko host rank, PageRank - Social Metrics: SharedCount