A lot of people misunderstood my point in the post I wrote last night about how much less fun Silicon Valley is during the boom times (or just failed to actually read it). Lots of unscolicited advice (yeah, I know how to say No, but thanks for the lovely condescension). And my post wasn’t about whether or not we’re in a bubble. All I said was that we are in the money phase of this cycle, and Silicon Valley loses its specialness when the money people roll in.
I didn’t say the party is over. In fact, it may just be getting started and we’re all going to make a lot more money, I’m sure. But the soul of SV went on vacation again, and I look forward to it coming back.
Mike, do you mean to say the Valley’s chase for $ and the natural beer and burger spirit can’t coexist?
Obviously the ideal would be somewhere in the middle of the two but isn’t bouncing around extremes just a natural(unfixable) thing?
–Zaid
I don’t think it was misinterpreting your comments to deduce that we are in a bubble. You didn’t say it had popped, but that’s what bubbles do. (Thats’ certainly the conclusion I jumped to when I wrote my take in Credit Card VC.)
I’m sure you will never admit this, but I think I’ve figured out one of your tricks for dealing with the crying founders so in need of a TC fix: You assign Duncan to write the story. That way the founder gets his story, but it’s so full of tortured British phrasing mixed with buzzword-generated crap that the readers are left wondering what the hell is going on.
Very clever. Took me a couple weeks to figure it out, but now that I have I can only tip my hat to you, Michael. It’s no wonder you reached the top of the food chain so quickly.
Kind of like when you remember when it was all farmland and now that the builders have put up all the tract housing and lollipop trees it just doesn’t seem like such a nice place to be?
I actually read your post yesterday around 5:00 AM PDT before all the fuzz and I concluded something very different from everybody else.
In my view it would be much better if TechCrunch would stop writing “package” stories from BigCo (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO, etc.). You are just being a puppet on their PR machine.
Go back to the roots. Only talk to founders and CEO, CTO and COO. Don’t accept calls or emails from PR, Marketing Consultants, CMO, VP of Marketing, VCs, investors, etc.
There is nothing wrong with those people, but they are inclined to always spin stories and to package things in a neat and uninteresting way. Founders are the least capable people on interviews, that is why they are so raw and interesting. That is when you get the scoop.
-Marcelo, a Founder.
I would agree with Marcelo - TC is reading a lot like the WSJ. Perhaps its time to do some TC spinoffs - one for major BigCo industry news, one for more blog-worthy startup type news…
I feel like I got the message of the original post (and mostly agree with it), but it definitely touched in a nerve in some folks. That alone tells me that there’s been a shift going on, whether or not people want to admit it.
I feel Scott made a very intelligent comment that at least deserves a response. In fact, I was not able to give it a positive vote. I tried to, and the vote system appears to only not work on his comment. Any reason for that?
Regarding Scott’s comment:
Duncan has only been writing with us for three weeks now, so I don’t think it’s quite time for conspiracy theories yet. He actually has a free hand to post on whatever he pleases. That’s cause he is a kick ass blogger and I trust him.
On the bubble stuff - I intentionally didn’t talk about a bubble because I don’t think we’re in one. Bubble” is different from “good times”. My point is, and remains, that when the money is flowing, SV is a less desirable place to live (for me).
Dave, on the voting thing, no idea. It’s working for me right now. We’ve actually been testing this plugin for possible use on TechCrunch and it just isn’t proving to be very reliable.
I thought lots of VC money led to lots of parties. Free drinks. Good times. I figured it was a good time to hike up from L.A. for a moment…
“Conspiracy theory” seems a bit strong, but I suppose if I protest too much it will draw attention to my theory about how the Kennedy family framed Pete Rose.
Look, the only reason I commented was because the original post was so good. If I had the problems that Michael talked about, I’d be looking for solutions such as offloading the weepy CEOs onto the most junior writers.
As for the bubble, I probably did go too far, but the most important point is that — bubble or not — what’s going on is that people are paying more attention to valuations, parties, etc., and not enough to products and user experience.
“what’s going on is that people are paying more attention to valuations, parties, etc., and not enough to products and user experience.”
You nailed it.
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