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Even if we ignore the economy, starting a startup before 2015 or so was "easy mode" relatively speaking. Now, there are less greenfield spaces, more competitio

Even if we ignore the economy, starting a startup before 2015 or so was "easy mode" relatively speaking. Now, there are less greenfield spaces, more competition, and less barriers to get started. Much much harder to start a successful business today.

taf2 5y ago
It was much harder to start in 2000 compared to 1990… it’s always the same every year it’s not harder it’s just harder to see compared to what you can look back to understand… the same is true today as it was yesterday and should be tomorrow - make something to help someone by adding value to what they do… charge them money for it - listen to how they use it etc etc … it’s never been easy IMO…. Finding the inflections is when you can make a unicorn but you can certainly build a business without one IMO… granted I’ve grew up with AOL surging and then collapsing … failed a few times and maybe have something that finally works … so who knows unless you try
- iso1631 5y ago
  2000 was the seeds of the dot com world, there was a massive new multi-trillion dollar global market opening. 1990 had none of that. Maybe blockchains and NFTs are the 2020s version of the internet as far as greenfield goes. I'm not convinced, but then I've always been too cynical for my own good.
  - randomdata 5y ago
    2000 was the height of the dotcom boom. The winners were already selected and the losers imploded soon after. This was not the better time for a new business. 1990 was the time the opportunity was ripe to begin securing your position for the year 2000. Businesses aren't built in a day.
    - iso1631 5y ago
      Looking at high revenue western internet companies founded around 2000 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Internet_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Internet_compa... Google: 1998, Salesforce 1999, Overstock 1999,, Bet365 2000, Grubhub 2001, Etsy 2002, Logmein 2003, Shopify 2004 Nothing around 1990. Amazon, Ebay, Expedia etc in the mid 90s sure. 1998 and 1999 did better than 2000, but from 1990-1995 there are 9 on the list, from 2000-2005 there are 19 on the list, from 2010-2015 there are 14. Starting in 2000 put you in a great position to capitalise on the real growth of the internet when mobile devices came on.
dalbasal 5y ago
I suppose easy and hard depends on who you are. Pre-2015 there were a lot of opportunities to get a running start without much investment. A cool new web-thing would spread organically, could be coded pretty fast, etc. Now, it's easier to raise money and use that to build a business. A not uncommon strategy is paying Google and Facebook $200 to acquire a $100. It loses money, but shows growth. For some people, the new way is easy mode. For a lot of people, the ability to raise, pay yourself a real salary and also recruit a well paid team is easy mode. For some people, three dudes and some ramen is easy mode.
jpadkins 5y ago
what happened in 2015?
- altdataseller 5y ago
  Nothing specific in that year but that was around the time when: 1. Everyone using FB ads and the days of FB ad arbitrage and cheap ad prices were going away 2. Cloud computing started to become more mainstream and building your own product became even easier 3. Instagram and YouTube started to really take over peoples attention and the days of getting attention by simply building something cool was disappearing.

taf2 5y ago

It was much harder to start in 2000 compared to 1990… it’s always the same every year it’s not harder it’s just harder to see compared to what you can look back to understand… the same is true today as it was yesterday and should be tomorrow - make something to help someone by adding value to what they do… charge them money for it - listen to how they use it etc etc … it’s never been easy IMO…. Finding the inflections is when you can make a unicorn but you can certainly build a business without one IMO… granted I’ve grew up with AOL surging and then collapsing … failed a few times and maybe have something that finally works … so who knows unless you try

iso1631 5y ago
2000 was the seeds of the dot com world, there was a massive new multi-trillion dollar global market opening. 1990 had none of that. Maybe blockchains and NFTs are the 2020s version of the internet as far as greenfield goes. I'm not convinced, but then I've always been too cynical for my own good.
- randomdata 5y ago
  2000 was the height of the dotcom boom. The winners were already selected and the losers imploded soon after. This was not the better time for a new business. 1990 was the time the opportunity was ripe to begin securing your position for the year 2000. Businesses aren't built in a day.
  - iso1631 5y ago
    Looking at high revenue western internet companies founded around 2000 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Internet_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Internet_compa... Google: 1998, Salesforce 1999, Overstock 1999,, Bet365 2000, Grubhub 2001, Etsy 2002, Logmein 2003, Shopify 2004 Nothing around 1990. Amazon, Ebay, Expedia etc in the mid 90s sure. 1998 and 1999 did better than 2000, but from 1990-1995 there are 9 on the list, from 2000-2005 there are 19 on the list, from 2010-2015 there are 14. Starting in 2000 put you in a great position to capitalise on the real growth of the internet when mobile devices came on.

dalbasal 5y ago

I suppose easy and hard depends on who you are. Pre-2015 there were a lot of opportunities to get a running start without much investment. A cool new web-thing would spread organically, could be coded pretty fast, etc. Now, it's easier to raise money and use that to build a business. A not uncommon strategy is paying Google and Facebook $200 to acquire a $100. It loses money, but shows growth. For some people, the new way is easy mode. For a lot of people, the ability to raise, pay yourself a real salary and also recruit a well paid team is easy mode. For some people, three dudes and some ramen is easy mode.

jpadkins 5y ago

what happened in 2015?

altdataseller 5y ago
Nothing specific in that year but that was around the time when: 1. Everyone using FB ads and the days of FB ad arbitrage and cheap ad prices were going away 2. Cloud computing started to become more mainstream and building your own product became even easier 3. Instagram and YouTube started to really take over peoples attention and the days of getting attention by simply building something cool was disappearing.