I think that the OP is himself just a year or two our of education and in an entry-level position in Tech. It would explain a lot.
"On one team, I was the head engineer at a small, seed-stage, venture-backed startup. I reported to and worked alongside the CEO.
On my second team, I was an individual contributor with 10 others at a well-known Big Tech company (Meta, Google, Apple, etc)."
From OPs linked blog.
How an apparently successful software developer, believes that having a college kid as his co founder, is a good idea is baffling though.
This is almost certainly describing an entry-level position. A senior/staff IC is unlikely to describe their role as working "with 10 others" (rather than leading/managing them).
They were pretty well-connected in a way that I thought would pan out well, but it just didn't end up working out that way.
I also have a hard time believing that someone who has zero professional relationships can even have the kind networks valuable for a startup. If his connections aren't professional, what are they. Romantic? Familiar? Friendships?