Marc Andreessen continues to fill up notebooks with ideas and sketched-out business plans for new companies. Among the gossipy cognoscenti, it's a poorly kept secret that in recent months he has been occupied starting a new Internet company.
Improbable as it may seem, given the breadth and depth of the dot-com collapse, not to mention the emergence of hivelike high-tech centers in places like China and India now available for off-shoring and outsourcing, Silicon Valley is starting to feel like 1995 -- the year Netscape went public -- all over again.
The miracle of Silicon Valley is that it is a system finely calibrated to spit out new companies -- some of which have come to be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, within a few years' time.
"I think the mistake now is holding back when you've got a good idea." Particularly with the rich scent of investment money once again in the air.
They form the core of a revived entrepreneurial network drunk on the idea of creating the next big thing. None have to work another day in their lives, yet they still routinely work 60 to 70 hours a week -- except those who sheepishly confess to working 80.
"You can't underestimate the good feeling you get when people in your wider social circle think you created something really, really cool."
"It's like the word 'opportunity' is there in front of you in red flashing lights and you feel you have no choice. I'm having the time of my life."
"I know one venture capitalist who's basically reviewing scores of ideas from 1999 [2], figuring there's all these babies thrown out with the bath water. I think he's right."
"We are not ready to stop changing the world."
