It depends on what circles you&#x27;re in. I&#x27;m in your boat - most of my friends talk about startups and tech and are routinely skeptical, if not brutal, in our assessments.<p>But I also know a few people who are much closer to the money side of the business who don&#x27;t ever shit-talk startups, no matter how crazy and dumb they are, or no matter how scummy their behavior.<p>I would say that the social acceptability of criticizing startups is proportional to your professional distance from a VC. Accordingly, the social acceptability of criticizing the meta-aspects of startups (fundraising, investing, etc) is the square of your professional distance from a VC ;)<p>There&#x27;s definitely a &quot;cone of silence&quot; effect around VCs&#x2F;incubators. Everyone walks on eggshells around them and criticism is extremely muted. Forget optimism&#x2F;pessimism, even criticism of downright unethical&#x2F;illegal actions is largely nonexistent.