> The best start-ups keep being scooped up by the big guys (see Instagram and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook). I was under the impression that that was the point.

> The best start-ups keep being scooped up by the big guys (see Instagram and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook). I was under the impression that that was the point. From the investors' perspective, you're playing volunteer R&D/HR for Amazon or Google or Facebook in hopes that they'll take notice and buy your devs and users off you. That's what an "exit strategy" is, and we all know that every startup needs one. The bit about changing the world and revolutionizing the way we communicate is a sop to keep the engineers happy and productive.