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This article is silly. Of course there are massively overhyped startups in Silicon Valley that don't deserve their funding or attention. I won't comment whether
by justin 15y ago
This article is silly. Of course there are massively overhyped startups in Silicon Valley that don't deserve their funding or attention. I won't comment whether Groupon is one, but certainly startups like Cuil come to mind.
However, there are also amazing, world-changing technology companies that DO come out of the Valley with semi-regularity, which are NOT coming out of other places. Google, Facebook, Paypal, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Dropbox... this list continues. These are companies that may initially serve the 1%, but also grow to serve the 99%, because they are useful, simple, powerful ideas.
This is not to say that innovation doesn't come from other places as well -- it clearly does. However, the Valley produces a vastly disproportionate amount of innovation in Internet technology considering its size, and justly deserves a disproportionate amount of attention. A Wordpress theming company is not going to change the world; I guarantee at least 1 company started in the Valley this year will. Yes, there are a lot of overhyped startups, but there are also a lot of appropriately hyped ones.
- mattreport 15y agoJustin, You're right there are a lot of great startups coming out of the valley. My article is from the view of an outsider looking in and the challenges I (we) face when we're not getting interviewed by Kevin Rose. Also, I'm not saying all startups out of the valley are for the 1%, but a majority in the Techcrunch media are. At any rate, thanks for reading and commenting!