What do these startups need so much money for?
tptacek: Big ticket items:* Carrying inventory, if you sell hardware.* A 6-10 region direct sales force.* A full time customer service operation.* The reconstituted powdered startup marketing packets they sell you when you buy your CEO.* The pro-forma engineering staff-up you do almost subconsciously to end up with a 50/50 b-team/engineering split.