[tastybites]

Usually in the bay area I hear this as "selling shovels to the miners". Here in LA a distinction is less often made because the tech scene is much less focused on hot web properties and there is a very large number of media companies that either do service-oriented things or produce tools.

the most important consideration should be working on a product you love

This makes for great blog content, but I fundamentally disagree with this. What's equally important is love just plain doing business. Do you think people with successful urinal cake distribution or timesheet tracking ERP companies love their product? The world is filled with unlovable, unglamorous businesses. The love of doing business (which is the politically correct way of saying making money) is equally as viable a path to success than loving your actual product.

[beoba]

It is also easy to love your work even if you aren't terribly interested in the industry. For example, urinal cake distribution sounds pretty awful until you think about the individual or team whose task it is to make it work as efficiently as possible.