How VC and startups became a hollow scam

The article argues that startup culture and venture capital have shifted from building lasting companies around technological breakthroughs to chasing investor funding, quick exits and inflated valuations. It blames the change on a tech bull market beginning about fifteen years ago, which made capital abundant and left founders complacent, and says many VC investors now back replicated "for teams" startups and follow each other into rounds out of FOMO. It also says the end of zero-interest rates, the post-COVID tech market crash and costly proxy wars have left the VC and tech ecosystems short of cash and ideas.