I think I can explain it looking at some of the comments on the similar discussion yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25487130 https://news.ycombin

I think I can explain it looking at some of the comments on the similar discussion yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25487130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25487130 It is the same as acting and sports -- people look the handful of winners, ignore the field of dropouts, and think they too can become a winner. They see AirBNB and think their startup is the next AirBNB. Also much like acting and sports, there are a constant stream of new entrants who have not learned the lessons. I want to be fair here -- I work at a startup and I love it. But I value my equity at zero and nothing more. I chose to work at a startup because I get to do cross-functional work rather than get stuck into a silo of a silo at a large company. I took a significant paycut from a large company salary and a significant upside cut from when I was a founder in exchange for more accelerated learning and exposure to all parts of the company.