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Comment by digitalengineer | Hacker News Reader

During the gold rush few really did find their fortune. But the ones who got really, really rich were the guys selling the tools (to dig). Who's selling the tools today?

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I'd say it's mostly:

- Landlords and real estate developers (who are making a killing in the current bubble)

- B2B companies targeting startups

- Professional services (lawyers, etc.)

Chris Dixon has written about selling pickaxes in a gold rush: http://cdixon.org/2011/02/05/selling-pickaxes-during-a-gold-...

During the California gold rush, the hardware sellers made tons of money, but during the Dawson gold rush, everybody knew the guy selling pickaxes made money. What happened was everybody tried to sell pickaxes, and the people selling luxuries, like eggs and fancy dresses made the money[1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush#Logistics

I through about this the other day. Not really who sells the tool, but who profits from all those failed startups. Maybe part of the answer are all tech/founders conferences, workshops, meetups etc. They are not tools in strict sense, but they are business around whole thing.

You mean Apple? Or the vast array of organic-gourmet-breakfast-burrito-like eateries?

All jokes aside, you're right, the analogy has some flaws. Or maybe the tools supplier hasn't emerged yet. Talking about a big opportunity here!

Perhaps AWS? 37Signals? Databoard and measuring services? There was this startup from YC for generating leads...

Venture capitalists sell the founders capital and do pretty well. Same with lawyers selling them legal advice. And landlords selling them office space and housing.

About 15 years ago I was part of a start-up and internally we kept on going over that story and trying to be those same tool-sellers. But there wasn't any real execution on that.

again, I probably wouldn't take my tech game plan from what worked for gold mining in 1849.

And we know who's getting really, really rich ... and its not 'people selling tools'. Its Google, Apple, Facebook, AirBnB, Dropbox, Stripe, MongoHQ, Heroku, Parse ... i.e. successful tech companies. Its not an unknown.

Parse, Heroku, Stripe, and Mongo are all selling tools. Arguably Apple as well (how many developers are using something OTHER than an Apple laptop?), although most of their revenue comes from mass market consumer products not sold specifically to developers.

Property owners.

Realtors & hosting companies.

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