It seems that the well-connected and savvy old guard has proven better at reaching ordinary people than an unconnected newcomer entrepreneur can, no matter how good the product may be.
In enterprise, trust and the relationship matters a lot, since the buyer is generally taking a big risk on you as a vendor. In smaller b2b, customers will be righfully concerned about depending on you when they can't be sure you'll be around in 2 years. These are both legitimate and important factors that are outside the scope of core product.
In consumer, even a great product will often get blown out of the water if a competitor with a worse but good enough product has a deep, deep marketing war chest. (the 'ol, "if you space has a VC backed competitor, you have no choice but to also raise money and fight a war of attrition") You probably still have the best chance in consumer by creating something with inherent virality (honestly the only way to not have a huge sales and/or marketing cost in any sort of business).
It's not even a sinister conspiracy at play or anything like that. It's just a truth that non-core value propositions are important in business, and are often even part of the true "product".
It explains why those with access to capital or people with capital are more likely to succeed as a result of being able to play the lottery over and over.
Google & Facebook founders did not come from a struggling American family (Sergei or Larry's family comes from the Soviet elite) and none of the "ivy league dropouts" had any pressure (twitch.tv justin's comment how he was unmotivated throughout uni) to be something their socioeconomic class determined for them.
Finally, Theranos is a clear illustration of economic lineage taking place--having a rich powerful daddy with other daddies tends to produce consistent wins, often through sheer will and structural reinforcements that inevitably sets conditions for even the most incompetent children of the elite to succeed.
It's starting to feel like, a lot of us are getting into the startup game and realizing it's just another vehicle of transferring wealth generated with your life so they can buy a horse ranch or private plane.