alt Hacker NewsThis is a little bit cheeky, but basically yeah.
Venture investment is limited to people who can demonstrably afford to take on the level of risk inherent to the market they're investing in. If you can't comfortably afford for the entirety of your venture investment to go to zero, you can't afford to invest in venture.
The exclusion criteria aren't perfect, (accredited investor designation is somewhat coarse-grained) but they're relatively reasonable.
A lot of people can afford investments to go to zero. Some are even accredited investors.
The problem is access. You can’t just go to some private market, and by the time you hear about a company it’s too late to get in.