If we are making a sports analogy, then having different leagues does NOT imply that it is not a meritocracy. The very best (judged from merit) end up in the top leagues. Sports is the ULTIMATE meritocracy, in fact, because there is a simple and fair way to judge who is better.
Leagues just form so that that similarly talented people face each other in fair competition.
Startups love to talk about their work as extremely technically challenging when in reality the developers I know who work at startups are generally no better or working on no harder problems than people not working at startups or working at startups that aren't very well known or 'in the big leagues'.
I think it really has to deal with the mentors the startups end up with and the funding, and together these help the "Big League" startups continuously be successful. Also, startups that are invested in by places like YCombinator naturally get more press and their business will have a higher chance for success (when combined with excellent mentors)....
You're free to disagree or correct me if I have any obvious misconceptions...Like I said..I'm on the outside looking in.
The analogy I've been working with is comparing startups to the mid 2000s Poker boom - once the internet made it easier for anyone to play competitive poker, more and more people started doing it. Once one "regular guy" - Chris Moneymaker - won the WSOP and ESPN televised the hell out of it, poker rooms were flooded.
But who did you see still sitting back there taking in this new money? The same old guys who had been grinding out livings on the card table for years. The same guys you see regularly placing in the top 20 at WSOP events around the occasional flash in the pan newbies who get a hot streak.
How's a person to know they're not good enough? Should everyone who doesn't come into the game already rich and well-connected just stay away?
Sometimes a persons particular skill-set scales really well at the next level and scouts and VCs may not expect that (Tom Brady 6th round pick versus a VC who says wow I wish I invested in ____).
Sometimes a persons particular skill-set looks like they will play really well in the big leagues but they never really do, or a well-funded startup never really gets traction for whatever reason.
I think the sports to startup analogy might actually be quite good.
Who knew the harder you work the more successful you are? I wish there were some sort of hypothesis. Grouping startups together, identifying what's unique/different, talking about founders, etc.
