They have gobs and gobs of money to invest. Rich people chasing ever riskier rewards just handing money to them! They have to find something promising to throw it at. But who is it going to? Evidently, a lot of it goes to founders whose primary skill is storytelling. I used to think, no matter how handsome and smooth and persuasive you are, you at least have to have a little substance behind your enchanting narrative and ivy-league mannerisms. But here we are with failure after failure (and a once-a-decade colossal failure like Theranos) where all the warning signs were visible to someone not under the spell, and these bullshitters are still getting funding shoveled at them.
It's pretty sad that "look like you know what you are doing and convince gullible people" is probably the best future career advice I can give to my school-age daughter.