The Top 100 Startups in LA

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11 pointsdougdarroch2 comments

So disappointing. I was expecting robots, bitcoin, cloning, gene therapy, integrated circuit design, space travel, face recognition. Instead it's senior care, making rental payments, social this-and-that, dog walkers, and a lot of companies simply selling on the web stuff you used to buy in a store like furniture and clothes.

Possibly the only business that sounds like it's breaking new ground is uBeam ("beams power through the air to wirelessly charge electronic devices"). I scanned quickly, so maybe there are more.

Certainly great fortunes have been made by simply selling on the web stuff you used to buy in a store (Amazon for example). It might be the economic reality, but I still can't help but feel sad that the top 100 startups--and all the creative energy and capital--are overwhelmingly prosaic and ordinary small business.

It's a good point. I feel like we should start making distinctions between Tech startups (i.e. companies using technology as a core raison d'être - the Microsofts, Apples, Googles, Facebooks, Yahoos of the world) and tech-enabled companies (the Amazons, Ubers, Airbnbs, the numerous food delivery or washing businesses etc - basically just replacing an old ordering tech (the phone/catalog) with a new one (a website/mobile app)).

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