I remember a conversation with the owner just before the bubble burst where he was expressing incredulity at all the US companies with high valuations and zero profits. It’ll all end in tears was the prediction.
The company I was working for had meteoric growth over those few years, selling an Enterprise product we built to insurance companies. I barely even knew there was bubble and that it was bursting.
My next job in 2001 was another small UK company, also selling Enterprise products for real money. No one ever talked about the state of ‘startups’ in the US.
It was a whole different world. On one side you had companies starting up, building products that fixed real problems, that they then sold to other companies for money — all without any outside funding.
On the other side you had ‘startups’ burning through other people’s money, building things nobody wanted, all going bust.
And they wondered why.
Now? Still working for companies that build products people want and then sell for money. And trying to build one of my own on the side.