The causality definitely runs both ways. If a company is perceived as an NBT, and that results in investors piling on, then the company is that much more likely to actually become an NBT. That's one of the reasons investors like to pile on: just because a prophecy is self-fulfilling doesn't make it any less accurate (just the opposite in fact).
You can't point to funding at a later stage (everyone sees that something's a hit a pile on) and work back to say that those were the only founders who could pull that off. You can't prove a negative.
You're saying, "Only a few seeds 'have what it takes'. Experienced gardeners see that and so they give those seeds water."
Or it could show how most investors are still very unsophisticated and insecure. They don't want it to be the NBT, they need for it to be. If the music industry was this bad, you would mainly be hearing variations of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber on the radio.
The lesson for founders, therefore, should be to avoid investors for as long as possible.
