[vonnik]

It can be a shock to come to SV/SF and realize how many startups there are here. It's probably unique on the planet. Sure, most startups fail. That's been said over and over. And in this economy, it's not really a problem. The risks for each individual tech worker are fairly low, because if your present employer fails, there are many others desperate for software engineers, designers, marketers, etc.

There are lots of good ideas and lots of bad ideas getting built here. Some founders are deluded, others are ambitious, and

Startups get founded in the Bay area because there's a lot of talent to draw on, a lot of experienced investors, and a lot of services that support young companies.

More generally, startups don't make money, they make promises. And the promise they make is that if VCs invest X amount of money, they will get back 5X in a few years. Or something like that.

Most startups end up not returning 5X, and a few return a 100X, and them's the breaks.

[_metamorphosis_]

I have been in SV since 2008, so not shocked by startup culture. What shocks me is so many startups with very trivial product/service which could easily be just a feature in their competing product. May be I'm questioning their value and overhead involved in developing that 'feature'. But again, there are some really good startups, and totally worth trying whatever they are trying to build. It's just their number is still no better than it was in 1999 or earlier. I wonder if there are any hard numbers of startups - how many? how many employees? their average experience/age? rate of 'success'? etc.