As a survivor of the first big .com crash, the current froth around startups seems uncomfortably familiar in some ways. There <i>are</i> a lot of companies making sustainable, growable revenue a priority. There also seems to be a lot of companies that are just throwing any idea they can think of against the social networking wall to see if it sticks.<p>I expect there to be some significant winnowing out, although perhaps not as destructively as 1999.
It's much more easier to start a web company today than 10 years ago. Cheap cloud services. Endless web frameworks. Client side libraries. Server side libraries. Matured architectures. Many best practices.<p>What's improved in VC world in the last 10 years? Better laws? Better standardized practices?
Isn't this the opposite of what we've been hearing the last couple years? The trend of companies being cheaper to start and the rise of angel and super-angel funds have left VC's without a place to make large investments? Isn't that the reason for the contraction of the "VC industry" in the first place?
Well I think the unsaid thing here is that the social media 'startup' itself is quickly being commodified... If you can write code, you can potentially build a semi-profitable product on your own for less than the cost of a TV. All the other business infrastructure can be handled by free or nearly-free web services, crowdsourcing etc. A lot of the marketing channels are free as well.
The thing that nobody understands until you've lived through it is just how long it takes for some companies to get profitable and self sustaining. And just how long it takes for some companies to get liquid and leave the portfolio."<p>The thing that less people understand is when to cut bait. I think avc is making excuses here.