If you total up the energy spent debating the merits and demerits of the Apple iPhone X event and various devices announced today, odds are that you could actually power another keynote, one where the basic question is why: why does the iPhone X matter? Why it’s even possible and where it could lead us – and why Apple is best positioned to lead us there. 

Mile Rock Beach, San Francisco, September 2017. Made with Fuji x100F. ISO 200, 3s at f/16 using an f2/23mm (35mm equivalent on full frame lens.)

9/11 is a date that is seared in my memory. Like many millions, I witnessed a horrific and dastardly act on live television. That day shook me to the core. In the years that have passed, it has come to represent what is great about America — its resilience and ability to come together and overcome any challenge. In times of adversity, America finds the strength that only love can breed, forgetting its petty politics and media madness. These are days of incredible challenges – Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the wildfires in California, Washington and Montana – and we need to love each other again, to overcome these challenges.

Pitchbook, a data research company has come up with a list of top 14 most valuable startups in the United States. There are no real surprises — they are all ranked by valuation and they all are valued at north of $4 billion. They are all household names – barring Outcome Health and Samumed.

And they have been around forever. They have thousands of employees and many have billions in revenue. What they are not is liquid on public markets. They have not IPO’d. In a different Silicon Valley, they will all be public companies and they won’t be deemed startups. Revenue, growth, relative size, market share – pick a metric (except for lack of profits in many cases) and you know they aren’t really startups.

So can we stop calling them startups — and instead maybe call them VC-backed private companies — otherwise the label startup loses its meaning.