Well, all I'll say is that one of the most prestigious venture firms in the world saw fit to invest in their seed round. Also, they took considerably less (half) of what is considered standard salary. In any case, it certainly wasn't an example of wily entrepreneurs ripping off dumb money. Everyone took risk because they felt that there was significant upside.
Kudos to them for returning the money rather than trying to ride it out. That said, I somewhat agree with the post below about things taking time. You need to be around a while before people start to trust you. That has to be an especially problematic hurdle if you're managing people's joint ownership of physically indivisible objects.
