I'm a 12 year veteran of early stage startups. One thing I found interesting about the whole experience was that on the technical side, smarts-based meritocracy was valued above all else, or at least that was the line we told ourselves. However, when it came to raising money, the most archaic, beers in the back-room, who-knows-who-knows-who boys-club approach was the norm. The things I saw would have made a 1920s Harvard admissions officer, or a 1950s hiring manager at an investment bank blush.

That said, the most successful startup I worked at raised money in an almost mechanical manner, with little or no beer drinking, or even much contact with the investors. YMMV.