Over the next ten years, while Ford focused on cost reductions, General Motors built a diverse and differentiated product line. It was not until October 2000 that Google offered its version of a  pay per click advertising system  -AdWords -allowing advertisers to create text ads for placement on the Google search engine. First Mover. MORE >>

2000 – Digital Video Recorders (DVR) like TiVo allowing consumer to skip commercials was going to be the end of the TV business. Politicians votes will follow the money unless it will cost them an election. This year the movie industry made  $30 billion  (1/3 in the U.S. from box-office revenue. The reality? Sound familiar? MORE >>

Cloud computing and the open source movements have brought down the costs of starting a company by more than 90%.  They need a combination of capital and experience to separate from the rest of the pack – the low cost of starting a business means it is even more vital to become the market leader more quickly. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! MORE >>

With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups.  But the second year (2000) was simply astounding:  nearly $90 million! I have been thinking lately about how hard it is to scale start-ups.  After all, scaling is hard.  Really hard. MORE >>

August 1995 – March 2000: The Dot.Com Bubble. Startups that win in the bubble will be those that get wide adoption (using freemium, viral growth, low costs, etc) and massive distribution (i.e. Carpe Diem. We’re now in the second Internet bubble. The rules for making money are different in a bubble than in normal times. The New Exits. MORE >>