This might be kind of tangential, but—if people are working pretty hard at early stage start-ups with the intent of having their start-up bought (presumably by a large company), then the large companies must be doing something, right? Clearly the startup employees think it is worthwhile to create a good product (the company to be bought). Which means they think there will be some reward based on the quality of the start-up they create. Which means they think the large company has some way of distinguishing between high and low quality start-ups.

That’s a thing the corporation does, I guess.