Regarding the "how did these guys raise so much money?" thing. I'm afraid this is mostly just a sampling bias - one that I've experienced as well.

Here's why: the people who forever can't find good talented engineers are usually the bad companies with bad ideas. Getting capital from MBA-educated VC's isn't that challenging or any significant validation of success (although still a notable one).

So you are more likely to come across a large number of the crazy ones who can't find engineers/designers during your recruiting phase coming from out of town.

Once you build a network you will start to be invited to work for good startups and smart people. Good companies recruit via networks until they reach scale.