Why I'm still in Spain
Marc Canter has two more interesting posts (3 in a row, actually). The first about Sun's Liberty Alliance and the second about the high rate of dot-com startup deaths:
I find this an amazing statistic!
A fifth of dot-com era start-ups failed. Nearly one in five start-ups backed with venture capital at the peak of the Internet boom went out of business before first-stage investors could sell their shares, a study finds. [CNET News.com]
Around here - only 1 in 5 SURVIVED the dot come era. The article says: "Some 22 percent of 1,842 start-ups financed by venture capitalists in 1999 have gone under, compared with an average of 15 percent failure rate for venture-backed companies started over the prior seven years, according to the report by research firm VentureOne."
I just can't believe that. This is ground zero for Internet startups and you'd be hard pressed to find more than 100 still in business. Things are so bad here - there was a story in the paper the other day about a former CFO of some startup having to drive a cab. Most of the dot com yuppies have left town and gone home to mommy. Vacancy rates are 50% in the SOMA area. Things are REAL bad here.
Yep, that's why I haven't gone back yet... But hey, I'm a ex dot-commer and I didn't go home to Mommy, I'm just exiled here in the far-reaches of Europe for the time being awaiting the moment to return.
-Russ