Slate’s Risky Business

Glance around my office and it is apparent that I am a dot com junkie.

One shelf sports a framed cover of the August 21, 2001 farewell issue of the Industry Standard, the magazine that chronicled the rise of the Internet economy. Then there is the signed book jacket for The Internet Bubble, a bestseller authored by former Red Herring editor Anthony Perkins.

The lone decoration on the wall is a promotional poster for the documentary Startup.com. This movie shares the tale of a New York-based company called GovWorks that flamed out in 2001 after raising millions in venture capital.

Yes…the dot com era left a myriad of entrepreneurs, financiers and service providers wounded. At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), we too danced with the pain having experienced significant staff layoffs and cutbacks as our client base cratered.

Yet, it was an incredibly exciting time to be working in technology. Plus, the Internet accomplishments realized a decade ago now contribute to the innovation of today’s new generation of entrepreneurs.

I was reminded of this fact yesterday when reading this wonderful article published by Slate magazine entitled “Risky Business: Web start-ups almost always fail. So why are these guys starting one?”

The opportunities, obstacles and market conditions in technology have certainly changed during the past decade. However, the entrepreneur’s desire to test, build and push for change remains constant.

Amen for that!