I wanted to reply with an off handed comment but i checked myself because this is a good and thoughtful comment which doesn't take the discussion off topic.
Unfortunately your comment is not applicable to this scenario, as someone who has worked in marketing at Procter&Gamble i can tell that it is about the shift in attention from tv and radio to the internet. Search was the first big disruption and it's measurability was par to none. This caused a shakeup in brand management and companies now had to focus on the zero moment of truth, a step up from the first moment of truth and the internet owns the zero moment of truth for products. Startups/Entrpreneurs and VC's enticed by the windfall profits of google and yahoo started pushing for ideas that could attract more eyeballs and as a result the younger generation have grown into the facebook era and have not been trained in other forms of business.
So what we have is a vicious cycle where entrepreneurs create attention grabbing startups, where the measure of success is x amount of users and then sell this advertising demand to google,yahoo, etc since they have the ad inventory to make use of that demand. This is why yahoo bought tumblr. This is also why most(not all) VC's don't really care about actual businesses that generate revenue by selling goods or services, it's too hard and it is too hard to get aquired. Basically you reduce their probability of a win, since two of their three exits are taking off the table, being exit to bigger ad comapny or aqui-hire leaving creating a profitable business on the table.
The bottom line is this, you are the spaghetti that the VC throws to the ceiling to see what sticks, thier appearance at tech conferences and startup competitions are to align you with their vision of what they want you to build. You have the illusion of choice, they say wearables or food tech and startups lineup to be the spaghetti.
This is a winners take all game, where VC's are chasing black swans like facebook, instagram, tumblr and the more of you that lineup to be spaghetti, the better their chances unless the "price" of spaghetti goes up. Pls read this book or the comments at least to understand the effects of this, http://www.amazon.com/The-Winner-Take-All-Society-Much-More/... .
At this point we are all trampling over each other to be the one that takes all and this has tipped the balance in the VC's favor until we have a shakeout, the hype dies down and entrepreneurs move on to other industries like banking. I would argue that this is the time to get into finance mabe use all the data science tools and start a Hedge Fund because those guys that left the HF industry before 2008 for tech probably had it easier. Bottom line, ask yourselve how many photo startups have been started vs sold for a $billion dollars, instagram will be the only one "winner takes all".
If not then pls watch this guy from startup school 2008, it is the highest probability for you to succeed in this overcrowded goldrush. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UXPfz_Kgk
Unfortunately your comment is not applicable to this scenario, as someone who has worked in marketing at Procter&Gamble i can tell that it is about the shift in attention from tv and radio to the internet. Search was the first big disruption and it's measurability was par to none. This caused a shakeup in brand management and companies now had to focus on the zero moment of truth, a step up from the first moment of truth and the internet owns the zero moment of truth for products. Startups/Entrpreneurs and VC's enticed by the windfall profits of google and yahoo started pushing for ideas that could attract more eyeballs and as a result the younger generation have grown into the facebook era and have not been trained in other forms of business.
So what we have is a vicious cycle where entrepreneurs create attention grabbing startups, where the measure of success is x amount of users and then sell this advertising demand to google,yahoo, etc since they have the ad inventory to make use of that demand. This is why yahoo bought tumblr. This is also why most(not all) VC's don't really care about actual businesses that generate revenue by selling goods or services, it's too hard and it is too hard to get aquired. Basically you reduce their probability of a win, since two of their three exits are taking off the table, being exit to bigger ad comapny or aqui-hire leaving creating a profitable business on the table.
The bottom line is this, you are the spaghetti that the VC throws to the ceiling to see what sticks, thier appearance at tech conferences and startup competitions are to align you with their vision of what they want you to build. You have the illusion of choice, they say wearables or food tech and startups lineup to be the spaghetti.
This is a winners take all game, where VC's are chasing black swans like facebook, instagram, tumblr and the more of you that lineup to be spaghetti, the better their chances unless the "price" of spaghetti goes up. Pls read this book or the comments at least to understand the effects of this, http://www.amazon.com/The-Winner-Take-All-Society-Much-More/... .
At this point we are all trampling over each other to be the one that takes all and this has tipped the balance in the VC's favor until we have a shakeout, the hype dies down and entrepreneurs move on to other industries like banking. I would argue that this is the time to get into finance mabe use all the data science tools and start a Hedge Fund because those guys that left the HF industry before 2008 for tech probably had it easier. Bottom line, ask yourselve how many photo startups have been started vs sold for a $billion dollars, instagram will be the only one "winner takes all".
If not then pls watch this guy from startup school 2008, it is the highest probability for you to succeed in this overcrowded goldrush. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UXPfz_Kgk