Sunday, November 21, 2010

Bubble, Boom Or Froth?

Fred Wilson [Brooklyn Beta]Image by placenamehere via FlickrFred Wilson has been calling it a bubble. John Doerr says it's a boom. And that's just two guys, although high flying, legendary types. I think what we are seeing is a froth. Let me explain.

A bubble is something waiting to burst. As soon as people wake up, they hunker down, and then where are you? The whole thing collapses like a ponzi scheme. There are some bubble aspects to what is going on. Do you think all startups that are getting funded will grow the money for their investors? That has never happened. Even a seasoned VC like Fred assumes one third of his investments will go down. But are too many flaky companies getting funded? The question is are more than the usual number of empty shell startups getting funded?