HN user
Yes, the Arab protester does show the potential of facebook/twitter for productive use. However from my point of view, facebook and twitter will be more like TV. On the surface it looks like it has a great potential for spreading of ideas, but I don't think it would actually reach that potential where it actually improves the overall productivity of society. I hope I am proved wrong...
I think we are in a bubble in the sense that none of this family of companies (facebook, zynga, groupon, twitter) increases the overall productivity of society as a whole (or even their user base for that matter) and yet still garnering such high valuations. Whereas if you look at the last generation of tech companies (especially google) did in fact increase the productivity of the overall society.
I think the overall emphasis on marketing is an outcome of commoditization of software. In an earlier hn news item, OReilly talked about the thing that is adjacent to whatever is commoditized becomes valuable. I think in the case of software commoditization, that adjacency is data. User data has become much more valuable because it is now the biggest moat that can protect a tech business. Its no longer the software and hardware The more ability you have to collect and monitize the data, the more defensible your business becomes. The only way to collect more user data is to have an effective funnel driven by marketing.
Thats my 2 cents anyway.
Yes I can see the value of an open attitude towards web startup would help you hire or partner. And if you are trying to solve a technology problem, you also have an easier time to reach your target customer (other techies). But if your web startup is not tech focused (i.e e-commerce, b2c), does the valley really help you any more in getting traction by growing your user base?
Since the capital requirement is no longer a large barrier to entry for web startups, I am wondering this mean:
- a startup should stay in stealth mode longer in order to give it a bigger legs up on its possible competitors - silicon valley connection to VC money becomes less critical and the team makeup for execution becomes more important. This may mitigate some of the advantages of starting in the valley.
What do you think about the assertion above?