Kids who had bizarre visions of the way people might enjoy networking, and the energy to materialise these visions from concept to code. They thought of it as a way to pay for a few more months of pizza, Coke and video games to play while they worked. These were the same kids who, for the most part, failed to create sustainable revenue models for their selfinterested benefactors. But the angry panelists had their blame equation reversed. A hacker's interest is in creating and expanding networks, not earning a fast buck.
Hackers are almost never business people, themselves.
They are visionaries and explorers. Of course not. They weren't in it for the money. They were in it for the thrill of discovery. And discovery, for its own sake, doesn't necessarily yield revenue.