"Beating the odds"? The fact they have a business model (or a notion of one) and were launched for little money does not mean they actually make profit in the long run. This article reads like something from 6 months ago.

I'm pretty sure this guy was just playing buzzword bingo. He used "nine" to create the top ten feel people so love (why he didn't go with ten I have no idea). Also mixed in "web 2.0" and the "down economy". He should have used recession instead of that last one, might have gotten some search engine love.

Because if you use 9, instead of 10, it makes it sound like your choices are so well researched and vetted that you'd never sacrifice your integrity just to make it a "top 10".

Many YC startups are included: Wufoo, Polleverywhere, Posterous, Rescuetime, Dropbox, Posterous, Disqus, Mighty Quiz.

Although if you don't have a business model and revenue for that matter, I wouldn't call you "beating" a recession; I'd call you surviving.

In some economic times, surviving is beating a recession.

There are nine companies because that's how many were presented at the Web 2.0 Summit. There are no other reasons behind the decision to use that many.

What's with all the terrible articles today? Just desserts, I suppose.