Yeah, but creating a web app that gets 1 million+ users isn't an easy feat, either, Joel. You say it can be done with 3 guys and an iguana. Well, that's only if the 3 guys +/- iguana have spent the better part of the last few years learning Python + Django/RoR, MySQL or PostGres setup installation and administration, Unix administration, SSH, Apache/Lighttpd/Nginx configuration and administration, Memcached, Perlbal or Pound, Mongrel, and perhaps Amazon web services like EC2 and S3. <p>Really, if you're not proficient or able to quickly learn these technologies, good luck with your iguana.<p>And, after spending the majority of the semester dealing with nightmares associated with the "Enterprise" web stack--ASP.NET, J2EE and Oracle--creating a web application is muck. Why else is Big Co. willing to shell out millions of dollars for a startup that has created these web apps and succeeded in attracting customers? Because Big Co's aren't doing it well at all. They're mired in muck.<p>Hackers willing to learn and use a non-Enterprisey web stack will find that they can walk on top of that muck and find brass. Selling shrink-wrapped software isn't the only way to make money.