Contra gurus like Paul Graham and Peter Thiel, successful tech startup companies do not actually create new technology. Good tech startups do one of two things: 1) invent a new technology-dependent business model, or 2) repackage and polish existing technology in such a way as to bring it above the threshold for widespread use.
I think this is coming from both the way you’re defining technology (which looks like it’s excluding various forms of cultural or social technology) and the set of startups you’re considering. I think both Graham or Thiel would agree with you that entrepreneurs create businesses, which seems like the short version of your claim. Yes, both of them think that new technology is a fruitful place to look for new businesses, but it isn’t the only one.
Consider biotech startups, specifically Genentech. The company wasn’t founded until a few years after the underlying tech had been invented in a university lab, and while now it has extensive research labs that do basic as well as applied research, most of the startups I’m familiar with (and early Genentech) are very much in the ‘applied research’ category.
I think this is coming from both the way you’re defining technology (which looks like it’s excluding various forms of cultural or social technology) and the set of startups you’re considering. I think both Graham or Thiel would agree with you that entrepreneurs create businesses, which seems like the short version of your claim. Yes, both of them think that new technology is a fruitful place to look for new businesses, but it isn’t the only one.
Consider biotech startups, specifically Genentech. The company wasn’t founded until a few years after the underlying tech had been invented in a university lab, and while now it has extensive research labs that do basic as well as applied research, most of the startups I’m familiar with (and early Genentech) are very much in the ‘applied research’ category.