But it will be interesting to see if some of the business practices (very low initial budgets, early releases, &c) common in web startups might translate into other fields. At least one YC startup (sproutsys) appears to be doing pretty serious systems software, which is still software, but quite different from being a "web startup".
Yes, to be totally fair I should say "web or software startup" qualifier, but I found it less elegant to type. And really, it seems to be the rare exception among either YC Companies or just discussions on this site. A sign of the times, perhaps, but still a point on the semantics of "startup" around here.
Honestly I found it annoying for a while, until I realized it would be a waste of time to qualify the term startup every time when it's clear what the domain of conversation is.
We are working on a wireless hw/sw/fw startup. Of late I've had at least one Web2.0 person express an interest in working for us. I expect we'll find many others who find the web startup scene boring.
"Of late I've had at least one Web2.0 person express an interest in working for us."
Well, you have a second interested person now! But I'm not a web 2.0 person; I'm an embedded software developer (and I, too, find this whole web hype very boring). Where can I find more info? Your profile is empty :(