Commemorating the Idiocy of the Dot Com Era: Did we Repeat or Reform?

What idiocy am I talking about? The idiocy of the first web craze from 1998-2001.

I started off my career working at Exodus Communications, a premiere web host for the top web brands, at the headquarters in Santa Clara, in the heart of the valley during the height of the boom.

I’m moderating a panel at Graphing Social Patterns, which is focused on the current hot market, social networking, which I cover as an analyst, and comment on frequently. To me, it’s important to remember where we’ve been, as it’s an indicator of where we’ll go, and I’m not just going to only look at the benefits, but will also highlight the challenges that this industry has.

Let’s start by first looking at the idiocy of the first wave to give some context of where we are going now, I’m going to mention what I observed in the past, and want you to help me answer (via comments or your blog) if this is where we’re now.

Commemorating the Idiocy of the Dot Com Era: Did we Repeat or Reform?

1) In the dot com rush, I remember marketing plans starting (and sometimes ending) with lavish parties in San Francisco at some of the most premier locations. It included actors, food from 5 star restaurants, giant ice sculptures where premium vodka was shuttled down to clamoring guests at the “ice luge”. The who’s who were spotted at these parties, Did we Repeat or Reform?

2) In the eInsanity, I recall ridiculous companies being founded such as eStamps (buy stamps electronically so you could then send snail mail more efficiently), Beenz (internet currency), pets.com (online store for all things pets). I was at all of those parties by the way. Did we Repeat or Reform?

3) I remember that carrying my exodus badge (It had the company logo, my picture and provided access to the building) was like a god given right to drive a BMW home at a dealership over night, as many of those that had cashed out bought quite a few Bimmers at the local dealership in San Mateo. Did we Repeat or Reform?

4) A few years ago, one of the determinants for joining a startup wasn’t how fulfilling the job was, but how many shares you got, how great the cafeteria was, and if you could bring your dog, or get massages at work. Did we Repeat or Reform?

5) In the boom time, we declared real world shopping stories dead, the move to click was needed or companies should buy wooden boards to cover up their stores. Did we Repeat or Reform?

6) Recently, in Silicon Valley (and beyond), a business model was defined as an IPO (yet we know that’s an exist strategy, not a sustainable plan). I distinctly remember being on a plane ride, and remember a group of execs at a startup (I have no idea which one) ordering champagne and bragging that they could drink as much as they could as one was going IPO. Did we Repeat or Reform?

7) During the electronic gold rush, immigrants from around the world flooded silicon valley in hopes of catching the IPO wave. The economy (and layoffs) was informally measured by the amount of cars on 101 every morning. Did we Repeat or Reform?

8] Leave your own in the comments, and feel free to answer the above, I want to know what you think.

I could go on and on, and if you’re interested, some time ago, I wrote this post on how I remember Exodus. If these stories are conjuring up dreams or nightmares, be sure to leave a comment, and answer those questions above.

Did we Repeat or Reform?