When I spoke to each of you about Tapulous, whether I recruited you, or inherited you from GoGoApps, I spoke of an engineering paradise where smart people would come together to ship beautiful applications, to lead a computing revolution, and to become a real force for world change.

It's a blustery start, yes: app development is world-changingly romantic, but romance rarely pays the bills. Still, it's not as silly as when he starts to channel Steve Jobs:

So what now? I’m going to work on my autobiography and come to terms with being ejected from the company I helped build. I’m going to spend time with my wife, and continue to fret over Madagascar. Then, when the next interesting project comes along, you’ll hear about it here. So in closing, my team, my friends, I must leave you to the fight.

Who can resist a tease about their next act when they're headed out the door, right? But Lee doesn't stop there. No, his new project comes pitched in his very next post:

Yesterday I said I was going to hang out and write and figure out what I want to do, but it's kind of obvious what I want to do... Forget professional CEOs. I'm an engineer, and a company is a just a project with formal ownership. Let's engineer a better company... Here's an idea — I could take my newly minted Silicon Valley Veteran badge and appeal to investors who are personal heroes, like Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Paul Graham, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Alison Jolly, Richard Dawkins, and Wil Shipley.

As iPhone developer (and former Apple developer) Buzz Andersen points out as a friendly counterpoint, Lee isn't doing anything all that revolutionary by taking a comparatively stupid amount of money to make iPhone apps.

But that's what developers really want, to be the celebrities in their own rockstar scene. And that requires the kind of ineffable "indie cred" taking VC cash could tarnish.

But do they want to put out a good product, or just a product that makes themselves feel good? Maybe "doing it punk rock-style," as Andersen suggests, isn't just a glamorous way to frame bootstrapping. It also allows coders like Lee to pose as uncompromising revolutionaries. Right: Uncompromising revolutionaries who help Steve Jobs sell millions of iPhones out of the kindness of their hearts.

It was only a few years ago that Decrem was threw an open bar party on Nob Hill for Flock, and now he's rumored to have tapped Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff for a first round at an $8 million valuation. Pinch Media, for its part, is being backed by Union Square Ventures. And that doesn't even count the $100 million Kleiner Perkins has set aside for an "iFund." What's the prize? $1.2 billion in business that a Piper Jaffrey analyst is estimating the Apple iPhone application store will generate. And that doesn't include the money 111 Minna will make hosting parties for wantrepreneurs to celebrating their good fortune on Sand Hill Road hustling the latest flavor of the month business model. (Photo by Ian McKellar)