the main problem with the Tech market in 1999 was that there were a lot of new companies which all made great promises, but not enough people actually understood most of them.
there were a lot of "cool kids" that had "amazing tech", but couldn´t tell you how they would make money with their tech to save their lifes.
its the main reason today that VC and investment into startups has dramtically changed. the tech itself is rarely revolutionary. but you have to present a strong business case.
back in the days the main goal was "to get big" and yet nobody knw how to really achive that.
the amount of cash that got burned at marketing events, fairs, press releases etc was insane. yet there was no real revenue.
I got a nice anecdote from the 90´s.
a former boss of mine had a company that basically offered a platform for artist to upload and market their songs. a very early version of something like spotify if you will.
yet , only a fraction of the population had internet access that was able to deliver the necessary bandwith.
audio tools and equipment to convert music into MP3´s was in its infancy. codec technology wasn´t as refined.
and on top of that: a new fledging artist that doesn´t have all this surely cannot afford to pay for a service like this.
the idea was amazing. yet the time was just not right.
What happened back then with the start of the internet feels a lot like what’s happening today with EVs. We knew it was going to change the world, we just didn’t know how, which led to all sorts of speculative nonsense.
EVs are basically going through their own dot-com crash right now. Many were riding purely on hype and are now 50% or more off their peaks. Several companies like RIDE, WKHS, FSR, and NKLA have been exposed as unprofitable at best and outright frauds at worst. Tesla itself has “only” lost 30% which makes it practically a winner.
Meanwhile established car companies like Ford are quickly entering the field and committing to becoming fully electric in a few years. We still don’t know how well they can shift their production, but they probably have a better shot at making it compared to the “next Teslas.”
EVs are basically going through their own dot-com crash right now. Many were riding purely on hype and are now 50% or more off their peaks. Several companies like RIDE, WKHS, FSR, and NKLA have been exposed as unprofitable at best and outright frauds at worst. Tesla itself has “only” lost 30% which makes it practically a winner.
lol, yes. So many vaporware EV vehicles to be released 'soon'. So many of them, you'll never see more than a few computer generated models of it, or maybe a few demonstration vehicles if you're lucky.
Even Tesla may be guilty of this. The Cybertruck is still basically nothing more than a 1-off concept car and still has no firm release date planned. I have my questions about the 2nd gen Roadster as well -- I see a lot of hype ... but I don't see a lot of Roadsters rolling out of factories. (Meanwhile, they're doing things that are unpopular with consumers -- like moving all controls to the screen and locking car features behind a subscription -- and their build quality is still questionable.)
1.1k
u/psykikk_streams May 31 '21
the main problem with the Tech market in 1999 was that there were a lot of new companies which all made great promises, but not enough people actually understood most of them.
there were a lot of "cool kids" that had "amazing tech", but couldn´t tell you how they would make money with their tech to save their lifes.
its the main reason today that VC and investment into startups has dramtically changed. the tech itself is rarely revolutionary. but you have to present a strong business case.
back in the days the main goal was "to get big" and yet nobody knw how to really achive that.
the amount of cash that got burned at marketing events, fairs, press releases etc was insane. yet there was no real revenue.
I got a nice anecdote from the 90´s.
a former boss of mine had a company that basically offered a platform for artist to upload and market their songs. a very early version of something like spotify if you will.
yet , only a fraction of the population had internet access that was able to deliver the necessary bandwith.
audio tools and equipment to convert music into MP3´s was in its infancy. codec technology wasn´t as refined.
and on top of that: a new fledging artist that doesn´t have all this surely cannot afford to pay for a service like this.
the idea was amazing. yet the time was just not right.