"R.I.P. Good Times" -- Crisis Hits Startups

Even the most blissed-out startup entrepreneur has got to have a sense of what's happened to the economy in the past few days -- and what that's going to mean for their business.

But just in case they're not getting the picture, some of Silicon Valley's most prominent investors are now shouting from the rooftops.

Sequoia Capital, best known during this bubble as the guys who backed YouTube, gathered some of their startups Tuesday for an emergency meeting. "The attendees were greeted by a cute image of a Grave Stone, with a message: R.I.P.: Good Times," Om Malik reports.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[PT6]

They CONTINUE TO SLING MUD WHILE AMERICA TANKS! What Happened to AMERICA FIRST?

Bush/Cheney must GO or CONFIDENCE can not be Restored UNTIL JANUARY and that WILL BE TOO LONG as AMERICA CONTINUES TO SINK!

This Crisis and Oil Price hikes were caused by Republican TRICKS using "Illegal Leveraging" and "ILLEGAL NAKED SHORTSING" of financials and other stocks.

Republicans probably are happy that Oil is lower during the election but prices dropped starting in July at the "HEIGHT of the DRIVING SEASON." WHY?

It Coincides with two simultaneous investigations in late June:

1. Congress investigation of "Crooks" doing "ILLEGAL LEVERAGING of OIL" -pennies on a Dollar!
2. Finally under pressure from Congress SEC began investigating "ILLEGAL NAKED SHORTING" of Financials and other stocks!

As soon as these two investigations began the OIL MARKET BEGAN TO TANK 23% and FINANCIALS went up 22.5% in about one MONTH.

Then the "CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE HIT" as everyone stopped trusting everyone else!

This simply shows how completely CORRUPT our Markets are!

Bush/Cheney must GO or CONFIDENCE CAN NOT BE RESTORED UNTIL JANUARY and that WILL BE TOO LONG as AMERICA CONTINUES TO SINK!

[AlteSoldier]

Gossip about Obama. That is McCain's solution to the problems facing the United States.

[iambusto]

Income statement is out, Cash flow statement is in. Simple as that.

during the .com bubble, all those exotic sounding .com companies showed revenues without cashflows. Cash flow statement was so 1960's.

well guess what, when it comes to startup companies, you gotta show the cash flow to get funding (and thats how it should have been all along).]

[wordup69]

Not every little guy deserves their own business. Good ideas always survive, but at a reasonable price.

[KillTheMessenger]

Web 2.0 apps are usually free for the user. The money comes from the advertiser.

[gabbinjane]

Women and Children Affected Most!!

[rbspickles]

Now we want our $700 billion back!!!!

[KillTheMessenger]

It was never "your" money to begin with.

[darker]

It's time to WAKE UP and SAVE YOUR FUTURE, don't fall farther down with the past and Republican corruption & failure. Republican "values" of PROFITEERING, DEREGULATION, CORRUPTION are destroying America. Republican policies are for ENRICHING THE FEW and ruining everyone else.

VOTE! Obama-Biden '08

[Rebecca]

I'm sorry, but we're too damned busy Wal-Martin' up the Government right now to stop long enough to give the little guy a helping hand.

[Lakshmi0000]

8 years of Bush gave you this, McCain can't wait to give you more of the same "R.I.P"

[GrainOSand]

I will always have the memories...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IpoTKnDPw

[gcallaghan]

Unless someone comes up with a way to get the internet to spit out cash, nobody's buying it. Tech startups are so-o-o last month. it'll take years, maybe decades, for any investor confidence to return to the point where any new idea, good or bad, can be heard. Tech-mogul wannabes ought to pick up a backup trade so they can eat until it's their turn to heave their pitch.

[KillTheMessenger]

The internet makes plenty of money. But at the same time it is a mature business now. We know what works (servers, server software, middleware, advertising) and what does not (eggsondemand.com).

If you talk to a VC about web 2.0, they will basically tell you to get angel funding from your Mom, show that what you have in mind is profitable and then they will come and help you to do the next step (i.e. make it big, go public or sell it).

[KillTheMessenger]

The good times for "entrepreneurs" (that's usually a bunch of fifty crazies with guaranteed to fail business plans with one or two really smart people mixed in who will make it) are over since 2002, latest. The VC business has never been the same since then. It's not that money has gotten any smarter since then, it has just a gotten a lot more stingy.

[Big0725]

When did crazy become a noun? Is that another O'Rielly-ism?

[ladyv]

Well, it goes back to at least the late 90s, when it was a Buffy Whedonism.

[KillTheMessenger]

I don't know. But if Shakespeare did not introduce it into the English language himself, the Bard missed an important aspect of humanity.

[TallGrrl]

Back in 2004, when Bush and his cronies stole another election (with a little help from Kerry and his campaign), I got a bumper sticker that says: "BUSH 2004: It takes 8 YEARS to ruin a country."
Boy, I wish I could get hold of another fortune telling bumper sticker that says: "The driver of this car is going to win the Lotto!!!"

[gcallaghan]

You're begging to have the car, the bumper or the sticker stolen.

[spiderbucket]

8 years of Bush gave us this.

[Marlyn]

"survival until conditions change"

so how long do you think it will take to recover? And it is not just us, is it? Isn't it the whole world? This time it's different, isn't it? Worse by far.

[KillTheMessenger]

It is by far not the whole world. It is not even "us". It is certain sectors of us which have bankrupted themselves by ignoring the obvious.