The supply of entrepreneurs was more than met by eager venture capitalists who were all but begging the new companies to take their money. In 1998 alone, 139 new venture funds were created, with more than $17.3 billion in new capital to invest with, an increase of 47.5% over the previous year.41 “It was absurdly easy,” a young Harvard Business School graduate said of the fundraising process during the dot-com era. “You would walk into offices in New York and people would immediately offer money to you if they thought you looked smart. We didn’t have any data on the market; we didn’t have a
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