To me, the author and commenters are missing the point of hiring "rock stars". The point is sort of the reverse. If your company was able to attract a "rock star", it probably makes something very interesting.
This just -in the eyes of VCs and other companies- makes your company more interesting.
The same applies to the times, where employees with PhDs made the company worth 70 mill$ more each (back in 2000).
A good deal of the value you can bring to hiring has to do with your personal network as well. You could be a mad scientist working on cold fusion, but if you don't know anyone, and a VC hasn't validated it, does that make whatever you are working on any less interesting? Absolutely not.
The point of the post was that there is this tendency to believe in the myth of the rock star, and that only the rock stars can make something amazing. A couple of the engineers from my old founding team are in YC now, and they are meeting with many VCs early. Why? Because they made those contacts on the first go round. Did they need rock stars to make that happen? No. Are they "rock stars?" No. Not in personality type anyway. I do look forward to working with them again though. They made for a great team.
