Especially the, up until now, habbit of inefficiently thtowing money and people at a problem hoping something sticks. In hardware, so nothing that can be growth-hacked.
I've repeatedly commented on this phenomenon. In my experience this has never worked and unlikely to work. I've seen at least 2-3 startups doing well go completely offtrack by sudden infusion of big VC money. They are then expected to ship features like no tomorrow which leads to rampant hiring. As a result salaries go through the roof messing up internal compensation parity. Also, money attracts a certain persona of people who are good at building empires and not creating value.
I guess what I'm trying to say is; a big infusion of VC money is rarely a good thing for an org. They stop being efficient and innovative orgs. When money is abundant the first response to any challenge is to throw money at it. Is website not able to handle traffic? Throw bigger DB, more machines. Not able to ship a feature on time? Hire a dozen more. Is user sign up down? Run a cash back campaign. This may help them crush a competitor in the short run but by the the music stops and money dries up once efficiency driven org would have lost that DNA.
Maybe it’s just me. But I don’t consider publicly traded companies to be anywhere near a startup.