I'm curious, have you written a pitch to a VC? I've been involved in ours, and it's very much not about the money. It's about the idea, the people, and telling a story. Look at the top VC investments in the last few years. They're all AI. Before that was crypto, and before that was ML.

> People who talk about wishing they hadn’t focused so much on the money are the ones who have it.

You're missing OPs point, and I'm pretty sure you're doing it on purpose. Go back and read it again and reply to what he said, not what you're claiming he said

There is an area between being unemployed and making huge money with scams and shady tactics where you can make less but non-zero money and create real value for the world.

Not everything needs to be a VC pitch. People go into teaching (for example) knowing that it doesn't make much money because they want to make a difference, and plenty of them don't regret it.