From social media apps to "full stack startups"[1] resonates with my sense of the current trends. Why are full stack startups emerging now as opposed to a decade earlier or later? Was social media consolidation a necessary foundation somehow?

[1] http://a16z.com/2015/01/22/the-full-stack-startup/

From the early failures, we've learned that we need end to end control in order to make products successful. So I guess the simple answer is experience.

> Why are full stack startups emerging now as opposed to a decade earlier or later?

Fifteen years ago it was hard enough to create software that for most people doing it, it was their main if not only area of expertise. Whereas now it's easy enough that even hobbyists can create high quality software while still specializing in business, marketing, manufacturing, operations, etc.

> I’m hopeful that 2015 will also go down as the year we buried the Unicorn

I fear he may be disappointed there: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=startup%20unicorn&cmp...

Ditto. The infographic was posted recently (can't find it for the life of me) but more unicorns were declared this year than all of the 3-4 year previous to this one combined.

I think the term Unicorn will only be buried when the bubble finally bursts, i.e. when most of these unicorns burn out within a few months of each other.

I was going to make a site called "unicornmaker.com" as a bit of a joke where it would buy one billionth of your company for $1, in return for a $5 service charge and would provide a nice certificate and press release for you. Didn't quite get round to it though... Then everyone could have a billion dollar company.