Full disclosure: I tend to save too much “stuff.” Old start-up T-shirts, BYTE magazines from the late 80′s, the exterior signage from past start-ups (true: BroadJump) and other relatively priceless memorabilia. 
I recently realized that part of my collection includes this 725 page collection of research and presentations from Morgan Stanley, published in June of 2000:
A couple obvious things worth pointing out: first, this was only 12 years ago. A little more than the average life span of a typical VC fund; basically just a decade ago; really, the blink of an eye. Second, this was really interesting timing relative to what was about to happen to the tech industry and stock market. One of the main analysts was Mary Meeker (now at VC firm Kleiner Perkins).
The chart below shows the NASDAQ run-up leading to March of 2000 where we hit an all-time high of just over 5000. Today, of course, we’re trading about 2700 up from a low in October of 2002 of 1139. So, really, this report was published just before the crash of 2000-2002 (everyone tends to remember it as just 2001).
If nothing else, it’s amazing how quickly things can change. That’s a great lesson for start-ups (and large companies).
so…in the spirit of learning from the (recent) past and in the spirit of having some fun, I’m going to pull some choice bits out of this research over a few posts in the coming weeks. I might even scan some of this stuff in and post it if there is interest.
Remember:
- this was before Google
- this was before broadband was ubiquitous
- this was when AOL and Yahoo! were kings
fun stuff to follow… see? good thing I didn’t throw it away.
