The opacity of the market for shares in speculative ventures is the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories of that sort. Remember that most of what even the interested parties knows about any given deal (even the big ones like Instagram) is hearsay. There is no standard reporting format; nor any mandatory disclosure of ownership for startups. So even people who are involved in the process do not have a clear view of what is actually going on across the broader market. Everything that even experts 'know' about the startup funding environment comes mostly from press releases which are not objective in any way. The 'startup bubble', could be entirely the result of inflated numbers and bullish hope.