Not if you can help it, unless the consulting directly feeds into your product. I find it's better, mentally, to focus on something 100%, rather than worrying about both your product and your clients problems, unless the latter is really something you can do on autopilot.
I said, "if you can help it", but unfortunately, I can't help it. I speak from experience when I say that it's distracting, and that periods where I've been able to focus 100% on something are vastly more productive.
Hear that. If you could choose to take a typical predatory VC round, putting a few mil in the bank and losing control of your board, would you trade positions from where you are now?
Well, if we're talking about stuff that's not very likely, I'd be pretty happy to go through the YC program, actually. Barring that, finding a niche product that's sustainable, but not 'get rich quick' material would make me happy.
I saw the bad side of what VC's can be like at Linuxcare, and it's pretty ugly.
