Basically you're asking why someone can bare the responsibility of starting a startup but not manage an existing organization. A startup is basically a entity

Basically you're asking why someone can bare the responsibility of starting a startup but not manage an existing organization. A startup is basically a entity catapulting itself into the unknown with the goal of eventually creating a viable business. With that in mind, it becomes more reasonable to hire someone with little experience but lots of motivation. Coming into a corporation is an entirely different beast. There are LOTS of constraints that are built into the environment already and you must learn to identify and operate within those constraints. This ability to known boundaries, respect them, and push them occasionally is a key skill of a good executive. This same ability is hard for an inexperienced person to even fathom. For instance, a good executive knows when to make the politically correct move even though its more painful operationally but an inexperienced person may not even realize they are making a political move. Consider a startup developer vs. a enterprise developer. A startup developer essentially starts from scratch and builds what they want. An enterprise developer must know the existing environment, know the entrenched technologies, know the involved parties, get the process owners to agree on decisions, and then make informed decisions on how to build out their requirements based on all these factors. In startup circumstances naivety can be an asset, in the enterprise world naivety isn't even an acceptable excuse. note: I am not trying to trivialize starting from scratch. Building a startup from scratch is a highly commendable skill set in and of itself, its just not relevant to the argument framed by the OP.