He's describing the euphoria that always accompanies a bubble atmosphere. In this case, it's a start-up bubble. The same exact atmosphere went on in the late 1990s, just with bigger rounds and fewer micro companies.
Money is sloshing around, and nobody wants to earn 2% on long term junk government paper.
$500,000 isn't what it used to be, literally, but it buys a lot in the way of a web start-up now. If that $500k is now really $250k in 1999 terms, it's buying more like $5 or 10 million in 1999 terms (when it comes to the infrastructure needed to get a web start-up off the ground).
I'd normally say the start-up bubble would continue until the next economic melt down dries up the funding, but the funding levels driving the start-up bubble are so low, it's hard to see what will slow it down short of government regulations (they're working on that).
Money is sloshing around, and nobody wants to earn 2% on long term junk government paper.
That's the most concise expression of this thing I've ever seen!
I'd normally say the start-up bubble would continue until the next economic melt down dries up the funding, but the funding levels driving the start-up bubble are so low, it's hard to see what will slow it down short of government regulations (they're working on that).
So, arc you thinking the Bay Area is in something like a perpetual bubble? Sort of like Helium starting to move and "roil" weirdly near absolute zero, once things have cooled enough to let quantum effects come into play?
Something PG predicted some time ago, at least the part with the cost-per-start-up thing. It almost looks like we've got a social media bubble, and not a internet-bubble in general like in the 90s. Strange enough the seemingly unlimited flow of yc-like incubators wasn't mentioned. Interessting we live in, don't we?
Money is sloshing around, and nobody wants to earn 2% on long term junk government paper.
$500,000 isn't what it used to be, literally, but it buys a lot in the way of a web start-up now. If that $500k is now really $250k in 1999 terms, it's buying more like $5 or 10 million in 1999 terms (when it comes to the infrastructure needed to get a web start-up off the ground).
I'd normally say the start-up bubble would continue until the next economic melt down dries up the funding, but the funding levels driving the start-up bubble are so low, it's hard to see what will slow it down short of government regulations (they're working on that).