I think it has more to do with the intent behind the project. Startups are businesses, and the intent behind them is typically to make money. Research project

I think it has more to do with the intent behind the project. Startups are businesses, and the intent behind them is typically to make money. Research projects don't intend to make money. Or, they do, but as a fairly low priority. It seems to me that research projects typically come across as "cooler" or more interesting because they don't exist to earn money, they exist to see if something cool could be done. To me, it seems that the reason a large number of startups are uninteresting is because they're attempting to piggyback on existing success (hence the X for Y stuff).