Charge money for your work. Don’t be a jerk to people. Repeat.

Actually, plenty of Californian companies make money from day one, so I don't see two examples from Chicago overriding hundreds of examples from California. Why do people like writing something that sounds good, rather than something factual?

<<Because [Chicago-founded Groupon and Threadless] are companies that aren’t founded on California principles … which I will define as, “Hey man, we’ll make something really cool, and we’ll eventually make money from it.” Instead, [they’re based on] very Chicago roots, which is, “Let’s sell something people can buy, and let’s do it really well.” There’s actually a business plan in effect. >>