Startup companies are a primary feature of Silicon Valley.
 Startup companies, particularly those associated with new technology, sometimes produce huge returns to their creators and investorsa recent example of such is Google, whose creators became billionaires through their stock ownership and options
 === History of startup investing ===After the Great Depression, which was blamed in part on a rise in speculative investments in unregulated small companies, startup investing was primarily a word of mouth activity reserved for the friends and family of a startup's co-founders, business angels, and Venture Capital funds

