It is the Best of Times: Life in the Post ZIRP-Boom Silicon Valley

I love being in Silicon Valley most of the time. It is by nature a “Gold Rush” town with fierce boom and bust cycles. The boom is fun but it does get silly and stupid near the end. Filled with get rich quick carpetbaggers that just seem to ruin everything. I admit I was one of these folks when I got here in the first Dotcom bubble in the late 90s. Thankfully after 25+ years I’ve absorbed some of the core values here. 

But the bust that started in 2022 is still in full swing despite the insanity we see lingering in Generative AI. Nature is healing after the last 5 years of the ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon) induced craziness that started in 2016 and ended in 2022. 

We are going back to basics. And many of these basics are the core values that made this place special. 

We are back to building and back to “show me, don’t tell me” phase of Silicon Valley. This is the best time, when everyone has written you off but you and your team are quietly building and selling in the background. It’s fun, scary and exciting. 

Your background doesn’t really matter unlike on the east coast. We don’t care what school you went to or where you worked before whether McKinsey, Goldman or Google. 

All that matters is: are you willing to get your hands dirty and do the work. Are you willing to grind at something for the long term. Long term here means 5-10 years not 2 years, or even 3 years. That you are going to do whatever it takes to make it happen. That you are building something that fulfills your curiosity, solves a real problem in an interesting, novel way and is also a net positive for society. 

This attitude is what originally made Silicon Valley the wonder of the world and will keep us there. Exciting times for founders and investors and I am personally glad to still be here.