Technology and media are evolving before our eyes it seems, a point the Pivot Conference has illustrated beautifully with an infographic they compiled showcasing how seven tech and web companies today started out.

It’s a great reminder that we are right in the middle of a technological revolution. While established industries rely on large scale manufacturing and mature worldwide delivery networks, new communications technologies have resulted in cottage industries popping up across the globe where language and cultural awareness are a marketable asset.

A good example is the startup MeTwit, an alumni of Dubai’s SeedStartup program. The business model is based on providing its subscribers with crowd sourced weather data from Twitter and other social networks. This not only gives the subscriber valuable real-time weather data but a human answer to the question “How’s the weather today?”. Metwit’s founders and other entrepreneurs are utilizing the tools introduced to the world quite recently in new and interesting ways, bypassing the traditional avenues followed by others.

Download the high res version of the infographic here: Pivotcon infographics