If you want to call it cronyism, fine -- but if you want to be successful in business, learning to give yourself an advantage by creating influence with opinion leaders is an important part of becoming recognized and trusted.

Those who refuse to do it out of some sort of misguided morality mission typically can be found on the sidelines crying foul at the players making the big wins.

Building a good product is not the only part of being a successful entrepreneur. It's not even always the most important part, depending on the market and the entrepreneur, though it always helps, and is often necessary.

c) Hahah - great response and true! But it's engineered cronyism which in and of itself is brilliant.