Not if you know where the gold is buried and no one else does (which is what their purpose is). In your analogy, the shovels would be something like Meteor, or one of those "learn to rails in 24 hours!" startups.
Or Mattermark just has slightly better shovels than the competition, and they know that focusing on keeping a slight lead in shovel making by selling a ton of shovels is more profitable in the long run than going for a single quick pile of gold asap.
Edit: Especially so if the gold doesn't want to be 'discovered' by just anybody. Founders have VC preferences.
