&quot;startup investing&quot; depends on your definition of startup.<p>For example, a person that has applied for a patent - no VC would call that a startup, but perhaps those with intimate knowledge of what the patent will lead to may indeed call that a startup.<p>Another example are &quot;stealth startups&quot; - we explicitly refer to them as startups yet many are merely patents with maybe a partially working prototype but no product yet.<p>There are instances where both of those examples are combined (sole inventor + operating in stealth).  Just because the entity doesn&#x27;t fit the profile of &quot;startup&quot; for VC&#x27;s doesn&#x27;t mean there isn&#x27;t room for that type of &quot;startup investing&quot;.