> Venture capital is not a sure footing to build a business on - at least not as sure as selling pizzas. You're right, of course, in that technology is not as

> Venture capital is not a sure footing to build a business on - at least not as sure as selling pizzas. You're right, of course, in that technology is not as predictable of a need as pizzas. But pizzas also aren't very hard to make or sell. They're a commodity, which means demand is always there, but it's tough to differentiate and make real money in them (because competition drives prices down). Google and Facebook, on the other hand, are monopolies of sorts. (Don't believe that? Ask Google Plus). While there are many different factors involved (and there are companies on much-less-secure footing than Facebook, Google or Pinterest), I think it's dangerous to extend the anecdote of, "I download adblock" to the rest of the human population. I don't use adblock, and I'm relatively tech savvy. Nor do most of my friends. So let's look at the ad-supported companies right now, but let's talk real numbers, not speculative ones. Facebook brought in $3.85B in revenue during the last quarter of 2014. Google reported consolidated revenues of $15.42 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. Those aren't hand-wavy "maybe someday" numbers, that's cold hard cash. Reddit, while much more nascent as far as making actual money goes (they would argue they're playing the long game and not optimize for earnings right now) brought in just over $8 million. They're not quite profitable, but they're not far either. There are a lot of forces that change whether or not something is valuable and what the venture financing market look like, but this time (as opposed to 1999) there are a few companies that are bringing in incredible amounts of real revenue.