It says that founders are less technical, and more likely to be based in NYC not SV.
But YC, the poster-child of the new wave, is totally "technical founder", and I also read that the share of VC investments in California vs Rest Of The World has risen from 47% in ~2000 to over 50% now.
I think the Economist is describing a different wave than YC. The poster child for its wave is Groupon, which has lately stole the press cycle by turning down the $6B acquisition offer from Google. (Which was a masterful PR move, BTW - we don't even know if there was an acquisition offer, yet by leaking that they turned it down, Groupon has become the new hotness in every media outlet's eyes.)
YC seems to invest much more in B2SmallB startups, which are less visible from a media perspective and require more technical savvy. Reddit's their most famous success because it was one of the few that is purely consumer web, but their other investments have included Wufoo, Heroku, ClickFacts, Auctomactic, FrogMetrics, and RescueTime, all of which are aimed at small businesses.
But YC, the poster-child of the new wave, is totally "technical founder", and I also read that the share of VC investments in California vs Rest Of The World has risen from 47% in ~2000 to over 50% now.
Discrepancy?