I agree with the general thrust of this. In the specific context of startups, its also not so much mimicry as it is appropriation of the brand identity of (X,Y)

I agree with the general thrust of this. In the specific context of startups, its also not so much mimicry as it is appropriation of the brand identity of (X,Y). Its basically leveraging others expenditures as a form of budget "hack", because its both quicker and less resource intensive. As a result, as a guerilla (marketing) tactic its effective. It also PR/link bait for lazy journalists. Their audiences are usually already conditioned on the uber awesomeness of X and/or Y. Last but not least, is a sort of pavlovian effect on investors's greed instinct. edits: brevity