You don't need to be "the next Google" to be an exciting tech company, though. Even AirBnB are not "the next Google" but they're still hugely successful.

That's exactly his point though: AirBNB is not really a high tech company. Other than scaling issues, it's a relatively simple CRUD web-app, their competitive advantage is in their business/social/whatever skills.

Journalists are ignorant by definition, that's why they ask questions.