Now everyone is trying to spot the next Facebook.... Here in San Francisco, there is money everywhere. Any college dropout with a hoodie and a half-baked can raise venture funding. Scooter rentals, grilled cheese sandwiches, a company that sends subscribers a box of random dog-related stuff every month - they're all getting cheques. Blue Bottle Coffee, popular among the cool kids here, has raised $20 million (over the next two years, will raise $100 million more) and brews coffee using Japanese machines that cost $20,000 each.
San Francisco is bubbling with weirdo delights, like twee little shops selling liquid nitrogen ice cream and trendy bakeries making artisanal toast. Every morning, walking to work, I dodge a river of hipsters in skinny jeans and chunky eyewear riding skateboards while carrying $5 cups of coffee to their jobs at companies with names that sound like characters from a TV show for little kids: Kaggle and Clinkle, Vungle and Gangaroo....
The economics of these companies made no sense. Their valuations were completely irrational.... Scammers were getting rich, and I was missing out.
It's a tough thing to be a tech journalist during a tech boom. You spend your days talking to people who don't seem any smarter than you - some don't seem very bright at all - yet, they are gazillionaires, while you're an underpaid hack who can barely pay his bills. I wasn't sure whether to resent them or envy them. In the end, I felt a bit of both.
From 'Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble'
San Francisco is bubbling with weirdo delights, like twee little shops selling liquid nitrogen ice cream and trendy bakeries making artisanal toast. Every morning, walking to work, I dodge a river of hipsters in skinny jeans and chunky eyewear riding skateboards while carrying $5 cups of coffee to their jobs at companies with names that sound like characters from a TV show for little kids: Kaggle and Clinkle, Vungle and Gangaroo....
The economics of these companies made no sense. Their valuations were completely irrational.... Scammers were getting rich, and I was missing out.
It's a tough thing to be a tech journalist during a tech boom. You spend your days talking to people who don't seem any smarter than you - some don't seem very bright at all - yet, they are gazillionaires, while you're an underpaid hack who can barely pay his bills. I wasn't sure whether to resent them or envy them. In the end, I felt a bit of both.
From 'Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble'
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
