I used to think your first point was correct, but it's actually not. If you look at the founders of startups, very few of them have worked in other startups. Us

I used to think your first point was correct, but it's actually not. If you look at the founders of startups, very few of them have worked in other startups. Usually they ladder up as the founder of progressively larger ventures. The other pathway is a prestigious college / MBA program or working their way up through one of the big tech companies and then leaving to start their own thing. I've seen very few "former lead engineer at X startup founded their own company" stories, and that was literally what I was trying to do with my career for probably 5-7 years.