> It used to be that everyone would dream of making a startup that big tech would acquihire.

Prior to that the dream was to just make a successful business. Consider Sun Microsystems.

But let's be real and invoke NoTrueScotsman: "hackers" are supposed to be more like Bill Joy at UCB than Bill Joy at Sun.

I doubt Bill Joy was thinking about business and financial success while hacking on BSD at UCB. Hacking was the end, not a means to an end.