Dot.com to dot.Boom

                  Andrew gave a lecture on the dot.com to dot. Boom on Tuesday. In the mid -90's technology companies such as Yahoo, AOL, pets.com, US Web and other tech companies were booming.  In the start of 1992 the internet just started to be developed. The tech companies were arrogant and thought they were invincible. They started to become greedy and companies grow rapidly. This caused the bubble to bust. Andrew Fry was the co-founder of Free Range Media, a web development firm in 1994 Andrew media company saw this coming and was able to be ahead in the market and was able to have first-mover advantage. Andrew Fry was able to secure many high profile clients such as the NFL and Nikkei. Being an old company their stubbornness is the main reason of their downfall.

The World Wide Web became popular during the 90's, and every tech company wanted to be a part of it. Deals were being made at a rapid rate, companies built and sold things and convinced people they were missing out. People wanted to be a part of the next big thing and so capital was invested a lot in many tech companies.

In class the analogy that Andrew used was the dinosaurs they represented the big Tech companies. They were very big like the dinosaurs and thought they ruled the world with all their power and money. But then the bubble busted and the big tech companies the dinosaurs fell down and died just like the dinosaurs who became extinct because of the asteroid that hit the earth. Except for yahoo who was the crocodile that adapted to the World Wide Web Project. The dinosaurs represent  the Five Stages: An Innocent Beginning, Boom!!, Insanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Bust!@#%*!,The Crawl Back to Sanity. The big tech companies fail because they couldn't adapt to something new.

John Dimmer

        Last Thursday John Dimmer came to our class to speak. John was a former business partner with Andrew Fry they started Free Range Media together in 1994.They knew each other since high school and are still close friends. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in finance and started out working for Puget Sound Bank. Later on he moved on to work at Alliance Surety Bonds. He gained a lot of experience there and that helped him gain experience for being an entrepreneur.He became an angel investor and also started a Honda dealership.
John talked about using the Golden cuffs to keep his best employees in the car dealership. Which is give your best employee the best offer ever where they won't leave because no where else has that offer.

        He also gave advice on funding your company if you wanted to start one. Crowdfunding was one way he said was useful to fund your company. Crowdfunding lets customers feel like good because its like being a part of something before it gets big. John also talks about the legal structures. he states :It is important to every entrepreneur to know their company’s structure, they are LLCs, partnerships, sole proprietorship, corporation etc. I learned a lot about funding a startup company and legal structures which I didn't really think about til John Dimmer came to speak.