Yah - I've seen the same thing. It's more about working closely with founders and then, "oh yah that thing you were planning on adding in 6 months, I'm gonna do that now and steal your IP"
Yup. But what I've seen even more is people cozying up to new founders and mooching time, publicity, connections, and money off them.
One thing to be on guard against is the human social capital version of the Ponzi scheme. In this a self-promoter makes wild promises, gets you talking them up, and then uses you as a reference to climb the social ladder and gain access to people further up the success chain. At no point is anything actually done or delivered to anyone. The end-game for such a person is to worm their way into a successful venture at just the right moment to hitch a ride... such as at the moment of a liquidity event. Another goal can be for them to get their "stink" on as many entrepreneurs as possible-- get their names on contracts, etc.-- so that if someone is successful they can come along later and sue. If they time it right, they might catch you at a liquidity point and you'll pay them off to make them go away... very similar to a patent troll.
These people will waste your time and make you look like a jerk. You'd be surprised how many of these there are, especially if you're in a "startup hub."
There's nothing wrong with networking of course, but there is something wrong with claiming relationships that don't exist, claiming to own things you don't own, lying about your accomplishments, and damaging other peoples' reputations in the process. The line is a bit fuzzy, but there are definitely a lot of things that are at best unprofessional and slimy.
People who just do this and nothing else usually don't cause much overt harm, but they do waste peoples' time and time is quite valuable. It's in the slimy ass-clowning category.
One thing to be on guard against is the human social capital version of the Ponzi scheme. In this a self-promoter makes wild promises, gets you talking them up, and then uses you as a reference to climb the social ladder and gain access to people further up the success chain. At no point is anything actually done or delivered to anyone. The end-game for such a person is to worm their way into a successful venture at just the right moment to hitch a ride... such as at the moment of a liquidity event. Another goal can be for them to get their "stink" on as many entrepreneurs as possible-- get their names on contracts, etc.-- so that if someone is successful they can come along later and sue. If they time it right, they might catch you at a liquidity point and you'll pay them off to make them go away... very similar to a patent troll.
These people will waste your time and make you look like a jerk. You'd be surprised how many of these there are, especially if you're in a "startup hub."