> do remember, the people who made all the money in the gold rush weren't the miners

I was curious so I googled. Wikipedia: There were 300,000 gold-seekers and "On average, half the gold-seekers made a modest profit, after taking all expenses into account."

So probably better odds than the people doing startups. One person who made a lot of money was Levi Strauss who stated selling denim to the miners.