Tech is like fashion.

Most products last a season or two and then die. There are trends, like group messaging, mobile photo sharing. You have arrogant media gurus making up the hype. Mike Arrington is just Anna Wintour without the glasses. You have plenty of entrepreneurs, wanna be, amateurs, and small bloggers (like me?) who are trying to get in and get close to the light. To the events. To LeWeb, TC Disrupt, big fashion shows equivalents where all the early adopters watch the stars on stage and feel like they're part of the family.

Big entrepreneurs are their own brands, like famous designers. Whatever Steve Jobs launches, we'll follow. Zuckerberg can wear a hoodie in a room full of suits and look cool. Personal rumors about them can make stock prices go up or down.

To me, what's more striking is the power of location and the impact it has on getting investors in, inspiring users and getting the word out. The power of ecosystems. Of being in Palo Alto to launch a tech product and schmooze with your peers. Of being an Italian or French designer to represent good taste and luxury.

Foursquare probably wouldn't be Foursquare if it wasn't a hip Lower East Side company. If the exact same product started in the North of France would have had trouble getting its first users, getting coverage and getting more users. Same for Facebook in universities. For Airbnb in the valley. Cause virality comes out of coolness. It's the power of story telling.

Great entrepreneurs have to be trendsetters. But the risk with fashion is that everything goes so fast, you could disappear even faster. We don't talk a lot about the hundreds of startups that die every year. ICQ is part of my childhood. Myspace is on its way. So you have to reinvent yourself continuously, like Steve Jobs with Mac, Pixar, iPod, iPhone, iPad. Because in that industry, there is no vintage clothing. You wouldn't use AltaVista on Netscape with a 56K modem, that's not cool.