On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 11:41:34AM -0700, Jim Lux wrote: > > Well.. to be fair, there were (and still are) businesses out there > (particularly a few years ago) that didn't fully understand the > concept of needing net profit. (ah yes, the glory days of startups > "buying market share" in the dot-com bubble) And, some folks made a > fine living in the mean time. (But, then, those folks weren't the > owners, were they, or if they were, in a limited sense, they now have > some decorative wallpaper..) >
Hi Jim, I think you have the common view about this. The reality is many of those same companies would be making money today. They were just ahead of their time -- which is very common here in Silicon Valley. Having good ideas or exceptional technology is not enough -- you need to time it right -- or you don't survive. I love the example of IP telephony. I first heard of friends in IP telephony startups in 1993-4 time frame. They and a long line of others went bankrupt, until Skype hit it big. The .com bust is about as hyped as you can get. They used to love to bash San Francisco as the symbol of the bust. Take a look at this month's cover of San Francisco magazine. Timing is everything in life. (smiles ;) http://www.sanfranmag.com/ And even worse, they lumped the failure of big iron companies and especially Sun Microsystems during that time with the .com bust, when, in reality, everyone was moving to commodity hardware and Linux during that time frame -- the business press just didn't want to report that at the time... Go figure. And timing isn't just about being to early. A good example today is all those new Internet search companies that are litering Silicon Valley today. Most of them will fail, because they are too late. Some will get bought out -- but most are going to fail. Timing works both ways. Just my view from the trenches of Silicon Valley, Karen -- Karen Shaeffer Neuralscape, Palo Alto, Ca. 94306 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neuralscape.com _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
