I recently came across an "open" job application at a startup, which was a form to submit your resume so the startup can build a pipeline of candidates for later, when they're ready to hire.

This led me to wonder, are some of the posted job opportunities at startups ghost openings just for pipeline building i.e. no intention to immediately hire but for later, provided a funding round materializes?

Please share if you know something about this, either as a job hunter or startup hiring manager.