I definitely believe there are more cynical motives in SV than many wish to believe. There's a reason VCs and incubators overwhelmingly target naive college kid

I definitely believe there are more cynical motives in SV than many wish to believe. There's a reason VCs and incubators overwhelmingly target naive college kids. Most of their programs are structured such that any participation by less-naive persons is impractical. The VC line on this is simply that "college kids are just super innovative, pure, unadultered". Ignoring the fact that this is basically an optimistic list of synonyms for "naive", if you believe that line of horse hockey you are likely one of the naive college kids being taken advantage of (or wish you were). It's a real shame because startups could benefit greatly from the mature leadership available out in big bad "corporate America". Not talking multi-million dollar CEOs here, just regular experienced folks who have mortgages and families to support because they're older than 20 and would like at least a market-competitive salary. Instead, VC firms hoard this maturity and experience for themselves, and leave their founders locked in apartments, surviving off a stipend that has room only for ramen to the exclusion of both fair treatment and personal dignity. There is undoubtedly an insidious element in this. There's no way experienced investors are looking at these companies and sincerely saying "Oh yeah, those two 23-year-olds definitely have a handle on this." The simple truth is that for many investors, it's an entertaining, [relatively] cheap, and profitable lottery. And they want to keep it cheap.