Why Do Hardware Founders Make What the World Needs?

Will O'Brien says the hardware founders he sees start companies to make something the world needs, not only something people want. They look different from the usual software founders: a bit louder, the kind who go to church on Sunday, and typically working on hardware rather than software. The Y Combinator line, make something people want, sits against that other motivation, and a spiritual reason is part of his own decision to start.

Jeff Bezos is his example of a head-oriented founder: the internet was growing at 30% per annum, books move easily and do not go off, so Bezos started Amazon. Steve Jobs is the heart-based founder, tied to the bicycle for the mind. Founders in the present era look far more heart-based. Many of them are in their later 20s. They were in college and maybe feel a little cheated, or they were pushed into a digital world and now want to cause impact in the physical one.