Startups is a team sport. Initially, the founders come up with the idea, the venture capitalists provide the funding. If the idea starts generating revenue quickly, then there is no need for venture capitalists money. The venture capitalists can help a startup scale up, go global. Hence, globalization really means venture capitalists behind the startup, pushing the transactions to the highest. If a business is local or national, it is considered a small business. Venture capitalists are not interested in small business, rather business that can grow globally. This is the place of maximum returns. The truth: The truth of the matter is the grass is not always greener on the other side. There are literally five venture capitalists that rule the whole Bay Area, California. The reason being that a venture capitalist doesn't just invest in one company, rather hundreds. Expect lots of competition, where the venture capitalists are stepping on toes of each other, guiding their startups in competitive areas. This is the reason why they are always fighting each other on Twitter. Each of them, has screwed each other, at some point in their careers. There is constant jealousy towards each other. They analyze and chew on each word. Mostly defensive, and when the opportunity comes, very aggressively offensive. Synergy: Startups are build on synergy. The team that loves itself the most, however to the point of most productivity, wins. The nice guys come last. The best team works together, through sadness and happiness. You must love each other so much, that even if sometimes hating the decisions, love conquers. The ability to see eye to eye, and have full trust in the team. This is how we built hi5.com, where I was the 5th engineer. I coded the hell out of hi5.com, which became the third largest social network, before Facebook and Twitter. 10 years later, I still refer to hi5.com as the best engineering team. The first 30 employees of hi5 were generating $1 million a month, enough money so not to need any venture capitalists money. hi5.com had a great family and friends investment round. The technical founder came from Stanford, and I was his coding boy. We were always in synergy, till I left the company. It was a very emotional moment, and the technical founder (CTO) and CEO left hi5.com, six months after me. Fragmentation: The opposite of synergy is fragmentation. This is the house of the devil. There is lots of competition, jealousy, and a natural pull towards separation. The team doesn't get along, and rather thinking of productivity, there is some other agenda. Some engineers are so competitive, that they just can't see anyone better than them. On the other hand, some business teams get so into the outside persona and success of the engineers, that they shun themselves down, dismantle the team. Only to lose the product and the technical team, shortly after. The venture capitalists lose a lot of money, because the team was always fragmented. Struggle is real. The fragmentation can also be based on ideology, race, bank balance, twitter follower counts and many other psychological issues. However to understand team gel and synching, it's very important to understand the motive. Always be preaching synergy, when talking with startup folks. Eventually they will get it, and be more mindful of their actions.