[larrys]

"I'll take revenue and profitability over media hype and "it" status any day of the week."

All that is fine of course and true. But there are side benefits to "it" status. For one thing it can help you attract talent and get the type of attention that can lead to success.

Let me give you an example. I've helped both high profile people and people who are nobodies with advice. In general the nobodies are much more thankful for the advice (and have even sent me gifts as thank you's). The high profile people say "thank you".

"Name dropping". But the fact that I do the work for high profile people, well, I use that in my marketing to attract paid customers that actually put money in my pocket. And it works.

[rosenjon]

If name dropping high profile people is an important part of your businesses marketing strategy, then it seems reasonable to pursue that <i>if it leads to more revenue/profit</i>

I think OP's issue relates to the weird, self-referential culture of Silicon Valley, where success is measured in buzz and money raised. It goes something like:

Build free software product -> ? -> profit

where ? = Get lots of buzz/hype, grow userbase quickly, raise VC money

Or course, this is similar to another business plan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts