There is a serious flaw in this analogy. It costs tens of millions of dollars to make a Hollywood blockbuster, and you don't find out if it was money well spent until opening weekend. But a couple of unemployed software developers can test out a startup idea for a few thousand dollars, and very plausibly get to millions of users or ramen profitability in a few months if the idea is good.
The incentives are totally different. So even if we agree that consumer media internet startups are becoming formulaic (I sure don't), this isn't the reason why.
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There is a serious flaw in this analogy. It costs tens of millions of dollars to make a Hollywood blockbuster, and you don't find out if it was money well spent until opening weekend. But a couple of unemployed software developers can test out a startup idea for a few thousand dollars, and very plausibly get to millions of users or ramen profitability in a few months if the idea is good.
The incentives are totally different. So even if we agree that consumer media internet startups are becoming formulaic (I sure don't), this isn't the reason why.
Maybe they're not, but man was the SXSW show floor depressing.
For someone who wasn't there, can you elaborate?
Yeah, I just wasn't very inspired. They were all companies I've known, or undifferentiating copies of companies I've know.
On the plus side, I was encouraged about the odds of getting funding.
If there were now 10X more startups, but only 2X more ideas per year, would that account for your depression?
Maybe, but that was't the proportion I saw.