The problem with this study is that there are only two agents: founders and VCs. And whatever credit does not go to VCs implicitly goes to founders. They did a

The problem with this study is that there are only two agents: founders and VCs. And whatever credit does not go to VCs implicitly goes to founders. They did a study of married (heterosexual, this is an old study) couples and asked them what % of the housework each did. The percentages always added up to over 100%, and in some cases a lot over. There were many reasons why people attribute their own contributions to be greater than that of others. This just seems to be the same phenomenon on steroids. They should ask the founder how helpful the VC is compared to the banker, or the advisor on the board. They should perform other sorts of comparisons to add context. Consider that VC may be performing functions that are useful but are not properly appreciated, for instance, signalling. Edit: Also consider the VC contribution of raising money and then staying out of the way.