But IDK how you look at the 2013 one and be anything but repulsed by a bunch of man children on stage.

And genius was sold for a shadow of what it was valued at https://trapital.co/2021/09/20/why-genius-sold-for-less-mone...

Probably, this is a natural evolution that ends up in a "mass media" phenomenon, and we need to find a new space or branch that is different and more realistic (for the benefit of the market AND the people).

IMHO, startups are ill-defined (e.g. "infinite" scaling) and the use of "life-style business" is derogatory if we try to define a startup that doesn't want to scale at inifinitum or is wise to wait for the real opportunity. I always use the example of Nintendo, or even Intel. Nintendo started selling playing cards and Intel business were RAM memories.

I would say, like in a Zen koan [1], that we need "alternative startups" or "underground startup culture" more than "indy startups". It sounds weird because the use of "alternative" and "underground" is against a system but startups are in the system but koans are good for thinking on this.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan

"In March 2024, Moghadam died at the age of 41 due to complications from his recurrent brain tumor." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahbod_Moghadam

He seemed like such an interesting founder, with a lot of technical knowledge and big opinions…

Likewise, now some people may seem really adept at startups. Perhaps they know all the right VCs, have a PhD, maybe they grew up in SF instead of moving there.

At the end of the day that stuff matters very little. The next big startup will be from someone, and something no one sees coming.

For example, I can think of one AI founder who is growing his company almost entirely on the back of using his product to make and post completely unhinged memes.

Harder to imagine in 2013, even then it might have seemed a little too unserious.