yeah, good point. The saddest part is, I'm confident that people will buy into that "crazy idea" and before you know it, they have a 4B valuation. VCs always win, even when they loose.

In today's startup and VC ecosystem, they've already won. They don't have to ever become profitable, they just need to get money from their friends and connections, forever.

I don't recall who said this (if anyone does, please do share!), but it goes something like this: if you reach Series F, it means exactly what you think it means. Well, not anymore. It won't be long until we'll exhaust the alphabet for funding series names, and we'll go two letters.

And this is not even a critique of PG. It's just what the VC and startup ecosystem seems to have become. If anything, YC does seem to be a sort of counterbalance to this trend.

Sooo... it seems like you've got it all figured out. But from the bitterness in your voice, it doesn't seem to be the case.

I remember being at a similar point in my life - the success of other people seemed so different from mine that the game definitely felt like it was rigged. And of course it was rigged to some extent given the human nature, but there truly is a way to take advantage of the parts of the game that are a more of a level playing field than anything we've ever experienced since the dawn of humanity. And the first step towards getting there is to be less bitter and more inquisitive. If you think you got the VC industry all figured out but you can't get it to work in your favor, then clearly there's a mismatch in your thinking.