I agree with you. But devil's advocate... The pool of ideal start-up candidates is finite. What if you don't have the budget to execute on a team of A hires?

I agree with you. But devil's advocate... The pool of ideal start-up candidates is finite. What if you don't have the budget to execute on a team of A hires? Something must be fungible. Either you don't actualize your dream at all, or you try to actualize it using sub-A players. I think most people at least want to try having a startup rather than none at all, rate limited by "talent".