The media's portrayal of startups is something I have a split opinion on right now. On one hand, I feel bad criticizing the media because several founders have cited jealousy as their reason for starting a new company. "Kevin Rose was on the cover of BusinessWeek, why the heck couldn't that be me?" So on one hand, it's a somewhat healthy amount of jealousy. On the other hand, I think it hurts people because there's a shock they experience when they do their first startup. "Wait a minute, startups aren't supposed to be like this. The magazines and newspapers had guys on the cover smiling, holding a thumbs up. This isn't what I signed up for!"

It's like digital crack. You get a sensational story, and it's kind of cool because it makes the startup world seem more attractive and now you have this overconfidence that you can do it, because well it's just easy and it looks like fun. It's probably better to read the full stories and get the full context. The founders aren't usually in the media to talk about themselves anyway; they're out there promoting their startup, so you're mostly walking away with a sales pitch (although startups do this to varying degrees, Indinero comes to mind when I think of startups who are most intent on using media coverage to grow, just an example). This video was definitely cool though, it's fun to see how they all work. They have one of the best pitches for hiring: "we have some of the smartest engineers" is an easy sell.

Check out the book if you want all the back-stories. It's pretty sobering; a nice break from the koolaid, so to speak.