I think you look at a company and you say, “is this an honest, principled cash grab?” and if the answer is no, it might be a cynical cash grab.

great answer! ha

Your last sentence asks about VCs but the parent comment is talking about founders. Considering that, it doesn't seem that the things are mutually exclusive. It could be that founders are increasingly starting businesses that "are just cynical cash grabs" (I'm not attempting to define that, FWIW) and VCs "are mostly investing based on whether they think a thing will make them lots of money".

> I think a number of startup entrepeneurs who in the past may have truly believed that, were... well, pretty wrong, perhaps willfully fooling themselves.

This is likely a common thing, which further ambiguates this. Makes me wonder if there's something about recent goings-on which makes founders more willing to deceive themselves, therefore increasing the likelihood that their intentions are assumed by outside observers to be more negative.