I actually think that you're both missing the point. Marius isn't arguing that every startup needs to change the world. He's arguing that if you're going to be making something, you should be making something new. I think pg touched on this in his post.
The problem is that most of the time, startups who say that they're inventing a new way really aren't. Look at all the Facebook-like attempts at social networks. Or all the Farmville clones in the social games space. The vast majority of those products are basically "me too" attempts that really haven't invented anything.
Marius' point isn't that people should assume that all the ways of doing (insert thing here) have been invented. His point is that if you're going to challenge an already established space, you need to actually invent something new.
Look at Paypal, Square and Stripe. All three, at a very high level, solve the same problem: They allow people to pay other people. But each one had a very unique pitch at the beginning: Paypal was the first to allow people to pay each other over the internet. Square, through a rather nifty little hardware dongle, allows people to take payments on their smartphones. Stripe provides a full API for developers to integrate into their products(and cut out the middleman of Paypal or Google Checkout).
The problem is that most of the time, startups who say that they're inventing a new way really aren't. Look at all the Facebook-like attempts at social networks. Or all the Farmville clones in the social games space. The vast majority of those products are basically "me too" attempts that really haven't invented anything.
Marius' point isn't that people should assume that all the ways of doing (insert thing here) have been invented. His point is that if you're going to challenge an already established space, you need to actually invent something new.
Look at Paypal, Square and Stripe. All three, at a very high level, solve the same problem: They allow people to pay other people. But each one had a very unique pitch at the beginning: Paypal was the first to allow people to pay each other over the internet. Square, through a rather nifty little hardware dongle, allows people to take payments on their smartphones. Stripe provides a full API for developers to integrate into their products(and cut out the middleman of Paypal or Google Checkout).