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I'd argue that the startup craze restarted in 2008, on growth in the mobile app market. The reason: All the money flowing out of failing housing market went str

I'd argue that the startup craze restarted in 2008, on growth in the mobile app market. The reason: All the money flowing out of failing housing market went straight into tech and commodities. Suddenly these startups were bursting at the seams with investment money and everyone and their brother were trying to get a piece of the pie. But now, commodities have already crashed. Money is starting to flow back into housing. It stands to reason that the easy money in tech has also left. 'Everyone and their brother' are starting to move on to the next get rich quick scheme.

nostrademons 10y ago
08/09 were terrible for startups - I had one that folded up in mid-08, and I was early. Most of the Web 2.0 generation called it quits over the next 2 years. Sept 2008 was the last time you could get easy funding until about 2010 - it was when Twitter did its big raise, then Sequoia's "RIP Good Times" presentation came out in October. The current technology cycle started in '08, and most of the really big players today were either in search mode then (AirBnB, Uber, Instagram, Whatsapp, Kickstarter, Pinterest) or were in the early phases of growth (DropBox, Heroku, YC). A lot of them didn't raise Series A until late 2010 or early 2011. I think it's fair to call that the restart of the startup market.
- amyjess 10y ago
  > then Sequoia's "RIP Good Times" presentation came out in October. I worked at a Sequoia-funded company at the time. It was bad... hiring ground to a near-halt, and attrition was used to shrink the engineering department. Eventually, I got laid off over a year later (February 2010), and by that time we weren't any financially better off than when Sequoia made that presentation. The reason for my layoff was because our VCs had given us less money during our Series D than we were expecting.

nostrademons 10y ago

08/09 were terrible for startups - I had one that folded up in mid-08, and I was early. Most of the Web 2.0 generation called it quits over the next 2 years. Sept 2008 was the last time you could get easy funding until about 2010 - it was when Twitter did its big raise, then Sequoia's "RIP Good Times" presentation came out in October. The current technology cycle started in '08, and most of the really big players today were either in search mode then (AirBnB, Uber, Instagram, Whatsapp, Kickstarter, Pinterest) or were in the early phases of growth (DropBox, Heroku, YC). A lot of them didn't raise Series A until late 2010 or early 2011. I think it's fair to call that the restart of the startup market.

amyjess 10y ago
> then Sequoia's "RIP Good Times" presentation came out in October. I worked at a Sequoia-funded company at the time. It was bad... hiring ground to a near-halt, and attrition was used to shrink the engineering department. Eventually, I got laid off over a year later (February 2010), and by that time we weren't any financially better off than when Sequoia made that presentation. The reason for my layoff was because our VCs had given us less money during our Series D than we were expecting.