The fact that nine out of every 10 startups fails doesn’t keep people from descending on the San Francisco Bay Area with dreams of getting rich while changing the world. Everyone wants to be the Uber of something, convinced that the world needs an app to help people express their emotions or an online store selling party favors that glow in the dark. Laura Morton dove headlong into this crazy world and emerged with Wild West Tech. Her ongoing series takes you into the networking parties, hackathons and grubby crash pads where techies tap tap tap away at their laptops. “Most of the people I meet feel they’re at a unique place in history and can do some cool stuff that they hope will influence the world for the better,” Morton says. “Some of them—not all—are also excited about the prospect of possibly striking it rich.”