Ask YC: Is Startup Ubiquity a Bad Thing?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282107

by iamdave • 18 years ago

14 10 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

In the past two weeks I have seen quite a few of these "X Startups in X Days" threads, or some other form of cranking out code, putting it on the web and calling it a 'startup'.

While I'm not immediately aware of how investors handle the rhetoric of 'startup', but personally just putting together a webapp and hosting it does not really make anyone or anything a startup. This lead me to an even more crucial thought pattern:

The web is indeed becoming the platform Web 2.0 demands it to be. YCombinator is showing consistency in funding successful startups, but I feel that there is too much ubiquity in redundant startup concepts (ex. remember when a new to-do list application was coming out every 3 days? notice how the exact same thing is kind of happening with GTD apps?)

Well, while I have no problem with people wanting to do great things, the thought wont leave my mind that while this burst of web activity is great, but what's to become of the other technology sectors? For that matter, what's to come of other industries?

Is this ubiquity of web activity endangering to itself, and possibly other industries?

qhoxie• 18 years ago

It may be endangering in the short term due to dilution or pollution, depending on how you want to classify it all. Overall, though, the best products will rise to the top. It's impossible to say when this will happen, but my thought is that it will.

As for other industries, there will probably be cross-pollution based on the quick successes that we have seen. Since the appeal of churning out 'companies' is obvious, I have no doubt it will be emulated in other markets.

nostrademons• 18 years ago

Basic economics states that when many firms enter a market, the market becomes more competitive and the expected returns to those firms go down, which acts a disincentive to others entering the market in the future. The effect isn't immediate (entrepreneurs have imperfect information about the real returns in a market), so that's why you get boom/bust cycles.

Slightly less basic economics states that when a market becomes commoditized, its complements should raise in expected returns. So we ought to be seeing higher returns for web frameworks, scripting languages, open-source databases, scalability services, web hosting, startup boot-camps, and services that help people make sense of the Web 2.0 clutter.

I think we're seeing this, but the problem is that other folks realize this too, and so we're seeing people pile into lifestreaming apps (eg. FriendFeed) and YC clones. I'm not really sure what industry has the best returns now - if I was, I'd be rich. I suspect it's not Web2.0, but there's something within tech that will be very, very high returns over the next 10 years, but it's not an obvious industry at this point.

joeter• 18 years ago

"Slightly less basic economics states that when a market becomes commoditized, its complements should raise in expected returns."

Good post - I see a big opportunity emerging for those who can figure out better ways to enable sophisticated use for and make sense of multiple databases.

helveticaman• 18 years ago

>Slightly less basic economics states that when a market becomes commoditized, its complements should raise in expected returns. So we ought to be seeing higher returns for web frameworks, scripting languages, open-source databases, scalability services, web hosting, startup boot-camps, and services that help people make sense of the Web 2.0 clutter.

I bet hackers' wages will rise a lot.

gasull• 18 years ago

there's something within tech that will be very, very high returns over the next 10 years, but it's not an obvious industry at this point.

Global market for nanotechnology slated for high growth through 2013

http://www.smalltimes.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Secti...

Does anybody recommend an index fund for this? Isn't it too early to invest in nanotech?

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

So pick a harder problem.

tstegart• 18 years ago

I think it depends on what your real definition of start-up is. Is it only businesses that can scale and create huge amounts of wealth? Or does it refer to anything someone starts with the intention of becoming profitable and supporting themselves? I can imagine that with enough time and hard work some of these apps thrown together can indeed produce returns, and might even give someone some financial success. Sure, they're not likely to be the next Google or YouTube or Amazon, but I don't see a problem with people cranking out code if they so choose.

sutro• 18 years ago

No.

vaksel• 18 years ago

Thats what happens when the barrier to entry gets lowered. We probably have the same amount of Googles coming out each year, but now they are just diluted more since a lot more people are cranking out code now.

hsuresh• 18 years ago

Am not sure if this is bad. The life of a startup probably begins after that initial launch(that bloggers, media covers). What happens after that is what probably decides if they become successful businesses.

Ask YC: Is Startup Ubiquity a Bad Thing?

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