Totally and this is the problem with startup founders of today. Their minds are filled with liquidity and an exit event. Steve Jobs had famously said how pathetic that is. And Zuckerberg, love or hate him, turned down billion dollars.
Selling your startup is not a good plan. Make it big, change the world, and swim in money.
Sure--if you're looking to do that, you're probably not taking VC and almost definitely not using YC.
VC does then choke out nascent companies in the "mid-sized, actually employs people" space if they think there's the potential for a quick buck, by driving it to zero, but the founders trying to do as you describe aren't anywhere near Y Combinator in the first place.
I don't know why you're saying midsized companies where what I am saying is that you can become the largest companies on this planet by not selling out.
When it comes to becoming the largest company on the planet, like the Highlander, "there can only be one", and those that fail wind up with their heads chopped off, not thriving in a smaller niche.
If you have a swimming pool worth of money, or a pond, or a canal, or a river, or maybe an ocean - you can swim in all these. Some founders maybe don't want to turn 58 trying to reach that perfect cubic m. volume of water to be able to swim. They might rather want to start swimming when they are kinda younger (30s maybe?). Who knows. And while already swimming they might want to get another pool, maybe an olympic size later and so on, instead of keep waiting for that "perfectly sized water body for them".
> change the world
Oh ffs. Really? Is that even a thought on the distant horizon of startup founders? Haha.
Selling your startup is not a good plan. Make it big, change the world, and swim in money.