This seems to miss a very important incentive, which is to change the world in a specific way.<p>For example there is a growing informal network of angels and VCs associated with the SENS Research Foundation / Methuselah Foundation community and the so-far handful of companies that are emerging from the past years of research funding into treating aging by repairing its root causes. The goal here is as much to produce specific new capabilities in medical science and get them to the clinic as it is to make money. In many cases these investors have the view that the only use for making money is to funnel it back into growing this research and development community.<p>There are analogous groups in other spaces.<p>This is an important motivation because it lets you look further than just for-profit funding. If I were launching a fund today, I'd try to set it up as 90% for-profit, 10% non-profit investment, with the latter going to nudge promising research across the line into startup viability. With the right connections in the research community, a group that is split between scientists, advocates, and funding sources can be meaningful minority owners in the creation of an entire new field by shepherding the research and seed funding the startups. Modern day early stage life science research, and proving mouse studies, are so cheap in comparison to later development for the clinic that this is a great investment model.<p>One reason most people don't do this is that they don't understand how to understand the spaces they invest in at the level of research and seeding new companies, and finding things that are a year or two away from viability, and could be pushed across the line with a little money and coordination, and the people who do understand that typically have little interest in investment. It is very hard to gather the necessary knowledge and will in one room.