back to article Tech startups, Silicon Valley, not all they're cracked up to be

Technology startups are not quite the growth engine they're assumed to be, according to a 30-year study by economic think-tank the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Kaufmann Foundation, to give the organisation its commonly-used short name, happily describes itself as “the world's largest foundation devoted to …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Not surprised that retail and hospitality contributes so many of these growth companies

    Think of the number of fashion labels that didnt exist 10 years ago. There is a lot of growth companies in that industry, but then there are a lot of companies that die quickly because they fall out of style.

  2. localzuk Silver badge

    The entire report is questionable

    As it is based on their own ideas as to what 'sector' a company falls within. So, basically it comes down to lies, damned lies and statistics.

    If Samsung was a US company, which sector would they put that in?

    Is Amazon an IT company? Or a retail sales company?

    1. Chicken Marengo
      FAIL

      Re: The entire report is questionable

      So many questionable aspects of this report.

      e.g. What about companies that 'only' reach $99M turnover?

      What about companies that get acquired before they reach $100M turnover?

      Is the importance of IT start-ups increasing, decreasing or flat over time? After all, there was a lot less 'tech sector' 30 years ago.

      Grumpy, cos I got to work at stupid o'clock this morning, to be greeted with drivel like this!

      1. Chicken Marengo
        Flame

        Re: Re: The entire report is questionable

        Oh and of course, how many non tech start-ups have only become possible/viable because of advances created by the tech industry?

        So much of the pharma industry is totally dependant on advances and falling prices in computing, often pioneered by small start-ups.

        Still grumpy

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Meh

    I think it will make a nice rug in my living room.

    Other than that.....

    Good question about Amazon. People have called it an internet company but really all the tech is just to enable its core biz of shifting lots of stuff very quickly. You could equally call it the worlds largest (virtual) department store.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: I think it will make a nice rug in my living room.

      Most all tech is used to enable something. Rightly viewed, technology is a tool and the problem with tech companies and too many tech oriented services is that they want to view themselves as the goal instead of an enabler. This is a very real and very burning problem for countries that have shifted their economies away from natural resource utilization and manufacturing. Tech heavy economies experience a short term gain from this but if every 'valuable' company only makes tools everyone ends up with a well stocked toolbox but with nothing to work on but other tools. The tech industry as we know it is maturing and for many years now we've seen nothing but incremental improvements on the existing tools, not many new tools. Someone needs to come up with something to work on...

  4. Christian Berger

    Whenever you read an economy study...

    ... keep in mind that economists are not scientists. They like calling themselves that way and they like to use metaphors of science, but they aren't. They don't conduct experiments to disprove their theories, they don't adapt/abolish their theories when they collide with observations, they do nothing real scientists would do.

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