This has been exactly my experience. Even in the earliest stage startupS they’ll be looking for the fastest line to profitability rather than prioritizing to build something that’s big and important. It’s low conviction investing where the financial model matters more than traditional west coast indicators of future success.
"they’ll be looking for the fastest line to profitability rather than prioritizing to build something that’s big and important"
First - don't assume that the 'big thing entrepreneurs are building' is in any way 'important'.
9 times out of 10 the 'big thing' is just neat idea, a project, and may have nothing to do with profiability.
Most 'grand visions' are that.
MS, Amazon, Snap, FB, Insta, Google - they all started pretty small, and worked at a fairly small scale. Surely they had visions, but they were fulfilling needs from the get-go.
I think what you are confusing is probably 'risk profile' of smaller VC funds, who in fact, don't have the patience to worry about building large marketplaces for example. It has to do with mentality, but also the size of the funds, and their experience with bigger bets.
And of course, nothing compares to SoftBank in terms of a 'massive fund looking to support global penetration'.
