I suspect with some startups is to do with the ecosystem. At first glance it makes no sense your tiny no-name startup adopts a FAANG interview process; it's lik

I suspect with some startups is to do with the ecosystem. At first glance it makes no sense your tiny no-name startup adopts a FAANG interview process; it's like running a US Marine bootcamp for your local cub scouts. However the best realistic (non-unicorn) outcome for a VC-backed startup is a FAANG aquihire, and the acqusition process may depend on the pedigree of your engineers and their ability to pass a leetcode interview as part of some pre-acquisition technical audit. Things like being able to execute on good architecture and design and overall code quality - the mark of experienced developers as opposed to newly-minted CS grads - are of lesser importance, as the product itself will probably be quietly shelved in a year. In other words the FAANGs see the startup ecosystem as a cheap recruitment funnel, so it makes sense for founders to optimize their interviewing process around that.