After FAANG, What Comes Next?

What 25 years since the dot com rise shows us about the future

Earlier this year marked the 25th anniversary of Netscape going public. Few noticed given how 2020 has gone. Nonetheless, it was an important date in the technology timeline. On August 9th, Netscape placed 5 million shares on NASDAQ at $28 per share. It opened at $71 and closed at $58.25 per share. The age of the Internet had arrived.

The success of Netscape created a frenzy in Silicon Valley. The following spring saw IPO’s for Yahoo and Excite. New companies were being funded daily. VC’s were throwing money at any and all ideas. I jumped into the frenzy in 1997 to find my own Internet dreams. I still remember the parade of tech entrepreneurs celebrating their first fund raises at the Bubble Lounge in downtown San Francisco.

Groundbreaking Start, PAYNE-ful Ending

While there were exciting tech companies launching during the Dot Com rise, most of the excitement was in the consumer space. This was the PAYNE age, companies that best defined the time; PayPal, AOL, Yahoo, Netscape, and eBay. It was browser wars, mega Internet directories, and selling everything and anything online. Most can still recall eToys, Pets.com, Kozmo, and Webvan. One of my personal favorites was UrbanFetch (similar to Kozmo), which I definitely overused for deliveries and always wondered how they could be profitable. Short story, they weren’t.