Not by a long shot. I'd argue by that metric Labs are hundreds of orders of magnitudes better. A few of the big ones (in recent history) off the top of my head:

Not by a long shot. I'd argue by that metric Labs are hundreds of orders of magnitudes better. A few of the big ones (in recent history) off the top of my head: -Norman Borlaug invented Dwarf Wheat while at a lab in Mexico. It has been estimated that this one invention saved well over a billion lives. -The transistor. Depending on who you believe, it was either invented in an Austrian Lab, a German Lab, or at Bell Labs. Either way, it has revolutionized the world. -The Internet. Came out of a combination of labs (defense contractors, CERN, etc) -Penicillin. Discovered in a lab, and easily saved 100's of millions of lives. The list could go on for another few hundred items pretty easily too. Do you seriously think that Startups help more people?