From The San Jose Mercury News
Startups lack ambition but may save the world anyway
By Michelle Quinn
What's happened to the idea of "changing the world"?
I ask because it strikes me that the kinds of companies being created in this tech boom seem awfully short on ambition compared to booms past.
The new crop is generally trying to solve the problems of the young hip urbanite — how to get a ride, find a place to live, rent out a couch, track your workout, have someone do your errands, send presents to friends via social media or connect with neighbors whom you never see....
In many ways, the evolution of startup ideas as they move to the city makes sense, said AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the School of Information at UC Berkeley.
"People who start companies in San Francisco are a younger generation," she said. "They are not all engineers. It is not all monolithic as it was. It is more software and design-oriented. Some are solving the problems they know. You can't solve the problems you don't know."...