I could imagine some slippier cases. A lot of successful startup executives have a bunch of money and invest it in startups. They (of course) pick ones that they think will do a good job in their space. It isn't
that crazy to imagine them recommending using a startup they've invested in, and it's also possible to imagine them making a convincing case to a board that the startup is the best option available.
They still can profit massively from that, though, so it's still kind of messy territory.
