Bigger than the Dot-com

Silicon Valley's vibrancy is truly unparalleled in the world and it is back and humming once again. 

We moved to the valley back in Dec 1999, when the dot-com boom was at its peak. I recall the energy in the discussions with colleagues and customers in those days. Companies were mushrooming up all around Highway 101, trying to build websites. The Nasdaq was threatening to touch 5,000 points and the valley was truly a “Happy Valley.” 

But then in early 2001, the bubble popped. Almost like someone stole the valley’s magic harp. The place started resembling a ghost town right up until late 2004. 

The good news though is that the magic harp seems to have returned to the valley and it feels like a happy valley all over again. While most of the country (and the world) is still coming to grips with recession and unemployment issues, Silicon Valley is buzzing again.   

The key difference though is that this time around the boom just seems bigger than the dot-com. Here are some reasons why the valley seems so upbeat to me-

• Most publicly traded valley companies are reporting great Q2 results, beating expectations by a big margin. 
• The IPO market is hot again- like LinkedIn and Pandora have already gone public. Zynga, Facebook and others are lining up for block buster IPOs.
• Last and perhaps the most important, there is not one but 4 different technologies fueling growth, Cloud, Social, Mobile and Big Data Analytics. These technologies will converge in many ways but each of these can individually drive market momentum. Back in the dot-com days, it was only the Internet driving all the growth but now the effect is quadrupled.

These 4 technologies will fundamentally change our way of life.How we collaborate with others will change. Mobility won't be a fad but a fact of life.Millions of new application ideas will come out of these technologies. Moreover, almost all the software out there will be re-written, creating/sustaining jobs.  It is exciting to be in the midst of this all. It's fun time again in the valley.