[taylodl]

I'm reminded of the story of the chicken and the pig. When making a breakfast comprised of bacon and eggs the pig is committed and whereas the chicken is merely involved. In this story the employee of the startup is the pig - if the startup were to go under the employees are the ones being harmed. The VCs are merely involved. The VCs are playing the odds - you put enough money behind the startups most likely to remain viable and one of them might be your unicorn. All you need is one in a thousand to be that unicorn for you to land your financial windfall.

That's why the OP is correct - the amount of VC investment tells you little to nothing about the startup. It doesn't even tell you anything about their runway as you believe, you have no idea how fast their burning through their cash. That runway might not be quite as long a you thought.