Fred is right, it's the entrepreneurs who are mythologized as heroes... and by consequence, the VC's are idolized as hero-makers. This industry / culture feeds

Fred is right, it's the entrepreneurs who are mythologized as heroes... and by consequence, the VC's are idolized as hero-makers. This industry / culture feeds off everyone's desire to be the hero. Why do so many startups flag after raising money? Because the founders set themselves up to believe that raising money means they've succeeded, because VC's have opened the gates to them... It's a perverse value-system similar to 20th century Hollywood and the music industry. Of course VC's are looking for real value, and want to support that with, as Fred describes, intelligent decision making, etc. But they are highly incentivized to maintain their position as gate-keepers. They certainly won't endorse the idolization, but they're not going to change the way the game works either.