Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Free. In less than a decade, these start-ups have become global powerhouses, ready to compete on a level with sovereign states. And their founders — Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Xavier Niels, men with extraordinary life stories — have become global celebrities. Why? Because the start-up creates more than products: it also creates myths. The legends of Steve’s workshop in the garage at his parents’ house, of Mark’s dorm-room at Harvard, of Xavier’s high school with its pink Minitel. The legend of the entrepreneur, the fearless “starter-upper”— vulnerable but free, solitary but brilliant — sells dreams.