I share your values but I don't consider myself to be a romantic. On the contrary, to my current knowledge building a sustainable non-profit org or social enter

I share your values but I don't consider myself to be a romantic. On the contrary, to my current knowledge building a sustainable non-profit org or social enterprise that has a chance to benefit a large number of people is more rewarding and meaningful than building a profitable startup. After a certain threshold happiness doesn't increase with income, so treating success as something multi-dimensional is perfectly aligned with self interest. However, startups are optimized for high returns for investors(higher priority) and founders(lower priority). While some startup business models do have positive externalities it is usually a instrument for financial success, not a goal in itself. Sucess or failure of a startup should be judged by its goals: profits for the stakeholders. The value generated by the startup should be assessed by the same criteria. Thus it's technically incorrect to say that a startup sold for $50 million produced nothing of value.