Boom

Matthew Yglesias reminds us how crazy Web Boom 1.0 was during the late ’90s. There were a lot of companies whose business plan was:

1. Raise venture capital money
2. Use that money to do a bunch of marketing to “build the brand”
3. Oh yeah, invent some kind of business, though it was kind of better if it didn't make sense
4. IPO strong because the brand was well-known
5. Profit

People would tell you this in so many words, with a straight face. If you told them that this was not, y'know, a business, they would tell you, “You don't GET IT. This is the New Economy, man.”

The bullshit is thick this time around, but it's not that thick.

Yet.