I sense a backlash growing. It seems like the only time people take you seriously these days is if you're in your 20's, have a spiky-haired asian dude as one of your founders and are launching a social/mobile/streaming video app in a weekend. That's what they cover on TechCrunch but not what the vast majority of us out there are doing.
Sidenote: I have nothing against asian dudes, spiky haired or not.
Hey, I'm in my 20s have spikey blue hair, and we started Answer in 30 (streaming video Q&A site w/ heavy social media integration) on Startup Bus, launched in private beta after 72 hours. No one takes us seriously which is why we're out there hustling and interviewing people so when we launch we have 1000+ videos. (Half way there!)
Show me an investor who takes us seriously and we'll be there to pitch within 24 hours. Or if you know TechCrunch people who are interested, we got wired coverage but it's not like it's 96 and people still read wired.
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/meet-startupbus-buspr...
That said, it's a lifestyle business that pays the bills and allows me to do crazy stuff like startup bus.
I didn't say there's anything wrong with fitting that mold, only that it's what the media seems to be pushing as the "right" way to do it. Best of luck to you, I almost took the StartupBus out of Cleveland but had to pass due to money.
The whole point of this type of model is that you make you $10k/mo by selling something that people actually pay money for, which means you don't care what TechCrunch/VCs are excited about. They're irrelevant for you.
$10k is your "fuck you money", provided you can rely on making it every month. This might be easier said than done, though.
For me it's being able to support yourself and your family in a fairly comfortable western middle class quality of life. The FU part is that, if you're making this independently and reliably, you don't need to care about the TechCrunch/etc bullshit the OP mentioned.
For another person it might mean living in a West Village townhouse and sending your kids to private schools. For yet another it's owning a private jet and the 49ers. In these cases you probably need more than $10k/mo.
$10K/month would give me freedom to spend 4+ hours with my son/day and not give a crap about how to get php+jquery+mysql to behave sensibly today. What do I care about FU money? If x$ gives you freedom, by definition it is FU money.
$10k/month is most certainly enough money for me to quit my 9-5 and live a comfortable life doing what I want to instead of what I have to. That's FU money as far as I'm concerned.
Sidenote: I have nothing against asian dudes, spiky haired or not.