Ironically, of all the startups I’ve worked in/consulted, the most profitable ones (actual profits, not paper profits) were started by non-obvious founders without significant funding or credentials.
Tech funding is becoming a little like the old boys club where ex-FAANG/Ivy VCs fund other ex-FAANG/Ivy founders.
Solving a small problem for a billion people will produce more utility (and therefore value) than solving a big problem for 10 people (obviously there are specific tens of people for whom this would be false).
FWIW though pretty much all startup advice, and YC’s in particular, is to solve the big thing for 10 people before scaling up.
Take social media as an example: It's essentially "attention arbitrage." The raw material is our attention, and the output is their profit. They've built an economic engine by piping excess attention directly to the highest bidder.
Also, can you really compare utility in terms of scale? Is it better to improve 1,000,000 lives 50% or 1,000,000,000 lives 1%?
This summarizes my disdain for tech. Most startups seem focused on addressable audience size rather than any form of utility. That is symptomatic of VC funding.