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Social Networking (the Shorter Version) Past, Present, Future

Both Sides of the Table

The Bridge Between Online Services & The Internet. It preceded the WWW but then become the onramp to the Internet for newbies. When Time Warner & AOL merged it was widely feared that this would be a monopoly that would control the Internet. For a nanosecond Rupert Murdoch seemed like the smartest guy on the Internet.

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How To Predict The Future

Feld Thoughts

We needed improvements in video compression and in TCP/IP – the underlying protocol that essentially runs the Internet. I looked at the future predictions for “modem speed” (as I called it back then, today we’d called it internet connection speed or bandwidth). Gene Kim laughed at my prediction. Napster arrived in June, 1999.

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Bubble Trouble? I Don’t Think So

Ben's Blog

In the great bubble of 1998-2000, the boom in public valuations mirrored the boom in private valuations. The inflation-adjusted data from the last bubble tells the story: In the 3-year period from 1998-2000, venture capital firms raised more than $200 billion, which represented about 0.55% of the national GDP.

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New Rules for the New Internet Bubble

Steve Blank

We’re now in the second Internet bubble. Over time, open source software the rise of the next wave of web startups and the embrace of Agile Engineering meant that startups no longer needed millions of dollars to buy specialized computers and license expensive software – they could start a company on their credit cards.

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Gust Blog - Thoughts on startups by investors that fund them

Gust

And in January I saw that digital music overtook physical media for the first time in 2011, something I expected since 1998. I bought the Diamond Rio mp3 player in 1998. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars.

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What’s Really Going on in the VC Industry? What Does it Mean for Startups?

Both Sides of the Table

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Here’s my take: 1. Our current fund was raised in 2008/09.]

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Great product and good momentum are keys to unlocking investment

The Equity Kicker

Andrew Chen responded to that with a thoughtful post about how the ‘funding goalposts continue to move’ Here’s the money quote: It’s been widely noted that investing milestones have evolved quickly over time: In 1998, you’d raise $5M Series A with an idea and not much else. In 2004, you’d raise $500k with just an idea.