I think the day of "take data, put it in a database, display it back"-days are over. That is, for new start ups it no longer suffices to have a client front (i.e.: web, app, api) and simply get and display data back ... that is unless if you are extremely luck.
So I am curious, what are you guys working on, and what are some exciting things happening in the startup space?
In the words of Clayton Christensen, once you are big and popular companies with better distribution and operational efficiency will thank you for proving that particular incremental innovation valid, and will inevitably step on your toes.
That or, your margin will always have to remain low because you will be a second player in the market. I mean, compare simple CRUB companies with the new hardware ones. Let's pick gaming companies like Oculus Rift, or the Omni on Kickstarter. They each spent about 2-years developing and their technology is not incremental innovation -- its a great shift.
I worry that all CRUB services, other than the ones that deal with big-data (i.e.: use Hadoop, or Casandra) are incremental innovations at this point.