I thought the whole deal with startup investing was: Invest in a few dozen companies and hope you get one hit so big it makes up for all the others, which you expect to all go down in flames.

That can work if you have millions to spend and the time, connections, and access to pal around with dozens of founders, looking for the good eggs. For a "small investor" who has a small fraction of a middle-class paycheck to spend and access only to the web, it would just be the most boring form of gambling ever invented.

Who "expected" a crowd of small investors for this, exactly?