But I think I covered your point as “A great startup is one that changes the rules of the game – and what most refer to as disrupting markets. Not all technology disruptions necessarily disrupt markets and lifestyle as well. But there’s the magic that an entrepreneur brings in and one that differentiates him from a pure scientist.”

So Yep, do agree that a kick-ass startup will disrupt the way things are done, and ofcourse that wont happen unless the market adopts it. Sitting at home thinking about a teleporting device doesnt help nor change anything

PS: Heard About Chris’ New book FREE and read that article. Thanks though.

*what makes for a great startup? possibly scale (user adoption) and followed by the ability to monetize efficiently. a lot of startups that want to change the rules of the game do not succeed, the companies that follow them may some time reap the fruits of the original startup’s hard work (google did not invent search, facebook was not the first social networking site)

*may i suggest disruption as an alternative to ‘controversy’. clearly google was not controversial up until recently. all the examples you mention reek of disrupting previous models.
*talking about free, chris anderson (of the Long Tail fame) writes about the new freenomics era at wired – http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Overall, a well penned piece