Unless that fresh faced person is Mark Zuckerberg, or Larry Page or Bill Gates or any of the fresh faced persons who were actually the real deal.

Zuck's record isn't spotless either. Fortunately he got good "adult supervision" early (which this article hit on).

The worst past is many of these buffoons managed to make their bones during the first go around (or the 1.5 go around leading up to GFC). Success is nasty in that it blinds you to your faults - and what actually made you successful.

So now many of these buffoons have won, don't know why or how they won and have started investing in people like them. And we wind up where we are now.

vc largely trades in the story. because for the longest time they could cash out on the promise of a thing rather than concrete earnings or anything remotely objective.

the silicon valley vc culture has been such a dependable shower of money, with a few minor blips, that its quite believable that some random people, with no particular idea in mind would wander by hoping to get wet.

so if a vc, in fact many vcs, invest very heavily in a story ,largely based on each others faith, and that turns out to be a company run by narcissistic idiots with no real long term economic value, we shouldn't be surprised.