Sorry, Startups: Party's Over

I call bullshit on all of this doom and gloom for startups.<p>We just need to buckle down, be cheap, creative and survive. Get to revenues quickly. But that doesn't mean its the end of the world.<p>This is when startups are made. The big Web 2.0 blockbusters all started up with things were down. Entrepreneurship is all about maximizing output using scarce resources. Lets do it then!

I wonder if investors are proclaiming tough times simply because it's in their incentives to push down valuations :)<p>Seriously though,once "everybody" starts proclaiming the truth, it's usually a counter-sign that "everybody" is wrong.<p>It's harder to ride the bubble in a recession, but it's still possible to create great companies in downturns.

The way I see it, there are two big opportunities for startups in hard times.<p>Firstly, some old businesses will be shutting their doors, and every time a business closes down it leaves behind a bunch of unserved customers, who presumably could be served at a profit by a more efficient business.<p>Secondly, people will be more likely than they are in boom times to break out of their existing habits and move to a lower-cost competitor. If you can find a way of providing people with things they <i>need</i> at a lower cost than the existing players, you can grow really fast.<p>Startups which exist to provide people with new and innovative ways to poke each other, on the other hand, might not do so well.<p>Oh, and one additional idea to throw out there while I think of it: a site aimed at highly-skilled but newly unemployed workers, with a combination of job-finding tools and commiseration.

Party? What party?<p>Oh, you mean the "We need to raise zillions to build our start-up, kthxbai" party?<p>Never joined that one.<p>I think the recession will be great for my start-up. It helps companies be more efficient and cut costs, and in a recession, that's exactly what they want.

i can see articles like this, and other chicken little articles and notices applying to big-funding startups, but what i haven't seen is how this applies to the little guys. me and my partners launched very recently (and were reviewed here, flowmingle.com for the curious), and we are currently unfunded. we're in the very very early stages of seeking funding, but on the scale of bubble money we're not looking for much -- just enough to move the servers to EngineYard and get a few ad campaigns out in a few major markets to start building a user base.<p>so in our case, i have a day job, and that job helps support the crew, both of which live very lean. i have the highest expense set (and the most experience, and can generate the highest salary) so i'm the one who works.<p>what does this mean for the little guys? is there still money out there for people who don't need a dump truck full, but still have a phenomenal idea?<p>these are the questions i'm looking to have answered. someone want to write that article?

We heard this before during the last dot bomb. given history, the best time to start is during bad economic times. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't MS, Dell, and Apple all start during economically turbulent times?<p>You just have to survive the downturn. For recent winners (from the last dotbomb) I can only recall StumbleUpon being one of them. Anyone else remember any other old survivors and winners from the last downturn?

I'm more curious about what this means for the valuations of the post dot com bubble 1.0 titans like Facebook, Digg and others. They're not going to die of course but I wonder if their values will deflate.