--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's Today Explained. I'm Sean Rameswaram for him. It's been a tough year for our politics in the United States.
--:-- Noel King: You seldom see the right happily working together with the left, but nothing unites politicians faster than big tech.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Red states and blue states got together to sue Google today. 38 attorneys general led by Colorado and Nebraska are saying the company is violating antitrust laws with monopoly power in its search engine and ad sales.
--:-- Noel King: Up until today, Google hadn't seen an antitrust lawsuit since yesterday. The federal and state governments are making it rain lawsuits on the big tech companies right now. They're also going after Facebook, Apple's in the crosshairs, Amazon too.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We've explained why plenty for a nice overview. You can check out our episode from earlier this year titled Tim, Mark, Jeff, and Sunder.
--:-- Noel King: But we've never really explored how this all started, what it was like back in the mid to late 90s in Silicon Valley when all of this, I don't know, this entire tech universe was being built.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But there's a new show from the Vox Media Podcast Network that does just that. It's called Go for Broke. It's all about bubbles and the moments they pop.
--:-- Noel King: The first season, which you can listen to in full, is about the dot-com boom and bust of the late 90s.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And one of the first episodes of the show focuses on Netscape Navigator. Remember Netscape? Amina, one of the producers of the show, does not.
--:-- Noel King: And it made me feel 10 years older than her, which I probably am.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Anyway, Netscape was one of the first buzzy Silicon Valley startups, the first big IPO. and then one of the first big crashes and burns.
--:-- [Music transitions]
--:-- Julia Furlan: Today, we're bringing you that story about Netscape Navigator and how it really set the stage for a lot of what we see in big tech today.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Once it's over, you can go find the entire first season of Go For Broke wherever you listen and subscribe for good measure.
--:-- Noel King: Support for Today Explained comes from Saks Fifth Avenue. Fall is here. Might be time to find some nice new pieces you can wear again and again.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: With Saks Fifth Avenue, it can be a breeze to shop for your personal style. like maybe a relaxed Prada blazer or Gucci loafers that are great for both work and the weekend.
--:-- Noel King: This is very Sean. This is very Sean-coded. Gucci loafers.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Saks says Saks makes shopping feel totally customized to you, whether that's from an in-store stylist or a visit to Saks.com, where they can show you just what you want to see.
--:-- Noel King: They say they'll even let you know when arrivals from your favorite designers are in or when something you've been eyeing is back in stock.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can find inspiration for your personal style every day at Saks Fifth Avenue.
--:-- [Music transitions]
--:-- Julia Furlan: Hi, this is Go For Broke, where we highlight moments when everybody loses the plot a little bit and the result is a big old crash. I'm Julia Furlan. Last episode, we looked at how the multi-million dollar marketing campaign behind a little sock puppet couldn't convince anyone to actually shop at pets.com.
--:-- [Music transitions]
--:-- Julia Furlan: Today, to figure out why anyone wanted to throw millions of dollars at the internet in the first place, we're going back to 1995. The chaos in downtown Oklahoma City did indeed resemble...
--:-- Julia Furlan: It was the year of the Oklahoma City bombings, the year Michael Jordan returned to the Bulls. The best in the world is back. And of course, the year Seal topped the charts with this absolute banger off the Batman Forever soundtrack.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But before the dot-com bud hits full bloom, we're looking back on when Netscape IPO'd, because this is, in a lot of ways, where the bubble began.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape's opening bell on the stock exchange was essentially a dinner bell for investors that meant it was time to make money.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape wanted to make it easier for the average person to use the internet with their flagship product, an internet browser called Netscape Navigator.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The icon was a little ship's wheel because their browser helped people navigate this new world of web pages and hyperlinks.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And it sounds ludicrous explaining this now, but before Netscape Navigator came along, every time you opened a website, you would just like stare at a completely blank screen and it took like a minute just to look at Jerry and David's guide to the World Wide Web, which you now know as Yahoo.
--:-- Julia Furlan: With Netscape webpages loaded much faster
--:-- Julia Furlan: The company was founded by two main guys Mark Andreessen a 24 tech whiz kid straight out of college and Jim Clark an older businessman who some people referred to as the adult in the room
--:-- Roseanne Sino: I knew Jim and I really trusted him, having worked with him before. And I think mainly, you know, I met Andreessen and here's this young guy who was 20 at the time. And, you know, basically, I thought, I can make this guy a star.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That's Roseanne Sino. She was Netscape's VP of Communications and one of the first women executives there.
--:-- Julia Furlan: She was in charge of getting Marc Andreessen's face on the cover of magazines.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: I think, if anything, it was that these guys were so young. They ranged in age, I believe, from like 19 to, you know, maybe 24.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They were really the nerdiest people you could meet. You know, they would sleep under their desks at night and they were smelly and they were goofy.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: And if you weren't hit by a Nerf bullet at some point during the day, you weren't at the offices.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Fundamentally, what these kids with Nerf guns are doing is trying to build the homepage to the Internet, A way for regular-digular people to connect and learn and experience things that had never really been possible before.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: I was a fervent, fervent believer. I mean, we drank the Kool-Aid, if you will.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's like, we are going to enable free communication and sharing of ideas on a basis that had not been done before.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: This is the second real job she's ever had, and she's not afraid of working 100-hour weeks.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Everybody had that attitude of, we are trying to change the world here.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: And what we were trying to do was in some ways unreasonable, but we were going to do it anyway.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There's a lot to be built, but it's a culture of experimentation and just getting things done.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: It's also invigorating to have a sense where nothing is impossible.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Nobody said, oh, we can't do that. We just did it.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: And the full repercussions of that, no one thought about.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Right. Who's got time to think about repercussions when everything's happening so fast?
--:-- Julia Furlan: Mark Zuckerberg may have popularized the term move fast and break things, but he's not even in middle school in 1994.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And the Netscape crew already has that mentality down pat.
--:-- Julia Furlan: This idea that like you don't do things 100 percent, you do them as fast as you can.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: You do it to about 80 percent and you just shove it out there and you fix it as you go.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You know, we always said at Netscape, you don't aim for 100 percent, you aim for 80 percent.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: I didn't really understand yet what we were trying to do, but I knew that everybody around me was really passionate about it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: What Tara doesn't realize, but the executive team at Netscape knows, is they're speeding towards an IPO.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So the idea was, if we went public, we would have an infusion of cash where we could hire a bunch of people.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: We could do a lot more work, you know, grow faster.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So that was the positive.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: The negative, there were a lot of them.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They want to grow, but like, let's just be real here. Netscape has yet to make any money.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: If we go public, everything we do is going to be scrutinized.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So that's a big downside.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: But the story goes, the real reason Netscape is rushing its IPO is because co-founder Jim Clark wants to buy a boat, a big-ass boat to stunt on his rivals.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I will admit, I didn't even know what an IPO was.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: Tara was hired just two weeks before IPO day.
--:-- Julia Furlan: In her new hire paperwork, she mistakenly skips the part about employee stock options because, you know, she doesn't want any more annoying paycheck deductions.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: I get that.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Later that night, she gets a frantic call from the hiring manager.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: She's like, you need to come in right now.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I'll meet you there.
--:-- Tara Hernandez: You need to sign this form tonight.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And I'm like, why?
--:-- Tara Hernandez: She's like, I can't tell you. You just have to trust me.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Had I not signed it, I would not have gotten access to the employee stock purchase for what at the time became the hottest IPO in the history of high tech industry.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So on August 9th, 1995, just hours after our man Jerry goes to that great jam band stage in the sky, Netscape IPOs to great success.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Keep in mind, this is only nine months after Navigator launched.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: It kept going up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And the price was from, you know, it was supposed to be set at like 12 or 13 and it was up at like 28 the minute it opened.
--:-- Roseanne Sino: And so then by the end of the day, I mean, it had gone up to 60 and it was crazy.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And they were like, oh, you know, it was a complete pandemonium.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape is the first big Internet IPO.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Microsoft, which IPO'd in the 80s, is swimming with millionaires and Bill Gates is a billionaire.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Microsoft is the tech firm right now, but it's not dominating the Internet yet.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Back inside the Netscape offices, it's disbelief meets celebration.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The phones are ringing off the hook.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The engineers aren't supposed to be paying attention to it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The idea was, oh, everybody, it's just business as usual.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Don't pay attention to the stock price.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's a little like, don't notice that there's a gigantic elephant trampling everything in your wake.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And there's a lot of young people.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You can't help but think, oh, my God, I have, what, like 10,000 shares of stock.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I'm a millionaire.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Like, I mean, it was just like, honestly, it was absolutely insane.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Tara and all of her fresh-faced colleagues, who once built an eight-foot-high replica of the Golden Gate Bridge out of Coke cans, they're suddenly millionaires, on paper at least.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They're like, wow, that number is amazing.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That's an amazing number.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I mean, how the hell did that happen?
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's not just a special day for the Netscape crew.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The IPO is the moment when basically everyone in and around the industry sat up and thought, whoa.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It was kind of like when you saw the rocket go to the moon.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Michael Moe was working in finance at the time at Lehman Brothers in New York.
--:-- Julia Furlan: He saw the Netscape IPO and got so excited that he packed up and moved to Silicon Valley later that year to become a tech investor.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape, you know, I think, frankly, in many respects, was a starting gun that went off that said the future is happening here.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Wall Street is psyched about Netscape's potential.
--:-- Julia Furlan: After this moment, every dot-com company points at Netscape as an example of how and why they should go public.
--:-- Julia Furlan: In under a year and a half, the company goes from not existing at all to an IPO valued at billions of dollars and their 20-something CEO sitting barefoot on a throne on the cover of Time magazine.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Now, just to check in on the details here, Netscape still isn't profitable.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's planning to make money via licensing Navigator to big companies, but for consumers, it's free to use.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There's still a lot about their business model that's unproven.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But that stock, though!
--:-- Julia Furlan: And even though everybody tells you, like, it doesn't count until it's in your bank account.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You know that part in Roadrunner vs. Coyote where they, like, run off a cliff and they're still running, but there's nothing beneath them?
--:-- Julia Furlan: Tara and her colleagues, they think they're rich.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Houses, cars, multiple cars, airplanes in some cases, boats.
--:-- Julia Furlan: really really fancy toys
--:-- Julia Furlan: One guy started showing up always wearing designer clothes and lots of bling lots of bling you know, diamond-studded fingers.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It feels like the sky's the limit, but if there's one thing I learned from that mix CD my high school boyfriend made for me, it's that every silver lining has a touch of gray.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Is it all right?
--:-- Julia Furlan: because the money that's arriving in Silicon Valley is changing every single thing about it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Turns out the Grateful Dead was on to something because it is even worse than it appears.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Or it will be soon.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Support for Today Explained comes from Built Rewards.
--:-- Julia Furlan: These days, it seems like everybody has a rewards program.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You swipe your card and you get one cent on the hundred dollars.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But with your rent, frequently, you just pay month after month.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You never get anything from it other than that roof over your head.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Not anymore, says Built Rewards.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Built Rewards says it lets you earn points on your rent.
--:-- Julia Furlan: By paying rent through Built, they say you can earn flexible points that can be redeemed toward hundreds of hotels and airlines, perhaps a future rent payment, your next Lyft ride, and so much more.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Your home isn't just where you sleep, it's your community, and Bilt wants you to go out and do things in the community.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You can eat at your favorite local restaurants, then earn more points.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You can get VIP treatment at certain fitness studios.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You can enjoy exclusive experiences just for Bilt members every month.
--:-- Julia Furlan: When you're ready to travel, they say Bilt points can be converted to miles or hotel points all around the world.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You can earn points on rent and around your neighborhood wherever you call home by joining Bilt.com slash Explained.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash explained.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Hi, I'm Julia Furlan, and this is Go For Broke.
--:-- Julia Furlan: This episode, we're looking at how the excitement following the Netscape IPO is about to change the Bay Area.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So I came to Silicon Valley in 1994.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I had graduated from college.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Rents were so low that my sister had a spare bedroom in San Francisco.
--:-- Katerina Fake: Katerina Fake is a tech industry OG.
--:-- Julia Furlan: She co-founded Flickr and was the chair of the board at Etsy.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Now she's a venture capitalist.
--:-- Katerina Fake: I arrive in San Francisco with a college degree and no intention of working in tech.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But that's fine because this was long before San Francisco had the most expensive rent in the country.
--:-- Katerina Fake: It was like full of cafes.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And you could actually support yourself as an artist working at a cafe.
--:-- Katerina Fake: Seriously, like, it was like the city that was like this was a magical place, right?
--:-- Julia Furlan: After settling into the city, she starts to freelance, and eventually she gets hired by Netscape shortly after the IPO to be a host for their community boards, which were these chat rooms where people would hang out and shoot the shit about the things that they cared about.
--:-- Katerina Fake: It's like a party.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's like you're having a party at your house.
--:-- Katerina Fake: So people in these chat rooms are all excited about science fiction and literature, and Katerina feels like she's really helping cultivate actual community.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You felt like you were, you know, at the start of something huge and miraculous and cool.
--:-- Julia Furlan: You know, people were in it for the love of it.
--:-- Katerina Fake: But this group that Katerina is carefully building is ultimately part of Netscape, which means that these tender gatherings of human people discussing the Dune Chronicles and whatever else are a business.
--:-- Julia Furlan: A business that Netscape might not see the value in.
--:-- Katerina Fake: And then one day, it was gone.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And we got an email that said, by the way, business decision, we have decided to shut down Nightscape communities.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And they pulled the plug.
--:-- Katerina Fake: And when I say pulled the plug, what I mean is they actually probably went to the wall and pulled the plug of a server out of the wall because I don't think anybody really gave that much thought to the fact that there was an actual community there where people were talking to each other and interacting and probably dating and having relationships.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And right around this time, just as she's seeing her online communities being dismantled, she's also starting to see her physical community change.
--:-- Julia Furlan: San Francisco was once an affordable, artsy utopia.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And then there was a sudden influx of 27-year-old dudes in khaki pants and blue shirts riding around in BMWs.
--:-- Katerina Fake: And you're like, who is that asshole?
--:-- Julia Furlan: The rents started to creep up faster and faster.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Suddenly, you started noticing all these people that were very different, that were kind of so-called working in tech, the people who came to work in technology, quote unquote, didn't come to build things.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They came to make money.
--:-- Katerina Fake: And those kinds of people are very different from the people who were around at the time.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And it was very noticeable.
--:-- Katerina Fake: They were there to strike it rich.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And like, it felt like, was there like a community around it?
--:-- Julia Furlan: community.
--:-- Katerina Fake: Community of people trying to make money?
--:-- Julia Furlan: I don't know if that's really a community, I guess you could call it that.
--:-- Julia Furlan: At this point, San Francisco is filling up with people who want that Netscape money, and dot-com companies are all starting to act like stock prices are a sure thing.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The entire town was swimming in parties and swag.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There was a rumor that some internet startup had taken their launch budget and hired Van Halen to play at their launch party.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Sometimes you would show up and your swag bag would contain a telephone, an Apple computer, walkie talkies.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And, you know, it was just part of attending a party.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And then there would be these like ice sculptures with gin fountains and dancing girls.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Like it was crazy.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I'm not that kind of party or it's just not my scene, but I would just go frankly because the swag bags were so good.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And I was like, huh, I could actually use a new laptop.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Getting free laptops and having wild parties is great.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Like I don't know too many people who would turn down that amount of free shit, me included.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It was excessive.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It was excessive and wrong.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Like you could feel how excessive and wrong it was.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was the beginning of the dot-com boom.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape IPO, I think you can trace it actually to that.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Meanwhile, back at Netscape, Roseanne, who was their head of communications that you heard from before, she was right when she said that going public was going to change things.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Not only did they have more scrutiny from their investors, but when you're sitting on a throne on the cover of Time Magazine, people notice.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There's also the increased spotlight put on, and that's when Microsoft starts to really pay attention.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There's this video from this moment in time that you just have to see for yourself.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives awkwardly dancing in their polo shirts and pleated khakis on a gigantic stage at the launch of Windows Billy G is dancing with the sublime knowledge that he has just become the wealthiest man in the world.
--:-- Julia Furlan: In downtown Seattle people are lined up outside computer stores trying to get their hot hands on a copy of Windows 95 an operating system that soon finds its way onto 90 of the world personal computers
--:-- Julia Furlan: A bit after the launch Roseanne gets a phone call from a woman on her team who at this big developers conference.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And I will never forget this.
--:-- Julia Furlan: She said, you're not going to believe who is staring at our browser right now.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And it was like, yeah, pretty obvious, right?
--:-- Julia Furlan: It's Bill Gates.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And he was just, you know, he was looking and he was, oh, you know, zeroing in on what it could do and what we were doing and all of that.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was really a moment that was, you know, it was kind of shaking, you know, because it's like, wow, we are targeted now.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And this, children, is the start of what was known as the browser wars.
--:-- Julia Furlan: See, before Chrome or Safari were even a glimmer in their creator's eyes, it was all about the great battle between Netscape Navigator and its sworn enemy, Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The day Internet Explorer 4.0 launches in 1997, some Microsoft folks decide to play a little prank.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Some Microsoft employees left a big physical version of the IE logo on Netscape's front lawn.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Tara Hernandez and her coder colleagues quickly find out and cover it up with their own logo, but they add a little extra seasoning so that they have the last word.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They put up a sign that says 72% market share.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was cool.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was powerful.
--:-- Julia Furlan: That was worth more than anything Microsoft had.
--:-- Julia Furlan: At its peak, Netscape had claimed 90% of the market.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But Netscape's lead is slipping as Microsoft starts using its many advantages to bully its way to the top.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Every computer that runs Windows 95 comes preloaded with Internet Explorer, allowing Bill Gates to chip away at Netscape's dominance.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The hardware vendors weren't putting Navigator on the computers anymore.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There was no financial incentive to do so.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I do remember that sensation of noticing that our market share had dropped like by half.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Bill Gates and the Microsoft team have Netscape in a vice grip that begins to tighten and tighten.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And Roseanne and her colleagues are feeling it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: A lot of our customers wouldn't go on record saying this, but they wouldn't buy from us because they were being threatened.
--:-- Julia Furlan: If they bought from us or they bundled our browser or our software with their systems, they were going to lose their operating system.
--:-- Julia Furlan: By 1998, Netscape loses majority market share and never gets it back.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Internet Explorer is now the preferred browser.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Netscape, which never made it to profitability before Microsoft got in the game, is suddenly a lot less popular.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And its share price takes a dive.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Tara still remembers seeing her co-workers reckon with the harsh reality of their quote-unquote paper millions.
--:-- Julia Furlan: People lost their houses, right?
--:-- Julia Furlan: People got their cars recalled.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Like, there was such a belief in the only positive outcome when it came to the stock.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They literally banked their futures on it, and it was devastating to many people.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Not a lot of companies went up against Bill Gates in the 90s and lived to tell the tale.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Looking back, Roger McNamee, the deadhead investment guy, feels that Microsoft had an unfair advantage.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But there is one thing that I'm hopeful we do take away from it, which is that monopolies are bad.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Microsoft was indisputably a monopoly.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The U.S. government eventually brings an antitrust case against Microsoft, which goes on for years.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But in the end, Bill Gates and Microsoft get off with a slap on the wrist.
--:-- Julia Furlan: We're in a fast-moving, competitive industry, but we will focus more on how our actions affect other companies.
--:-- Julia Furlan: But it was too late for Netscape.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Defeated and spiraling, it was bought by AOL in 98 and dismantled some years after that.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Despite its slow march into obscurity, and despite the fact that most people under the age of 30 have no idea what a Netscape even is, The company's legacy shifted the history of investing, of technology, and ultimately the internet we know today.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Thanks to the IPO, once everybody figured out there was big money to be made, the rush was on.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The United States has a culture that is unique in the world in embracing entrepreneurship as a lottery ticket.
--:-- Julia Furlan: that we have a predilection in this country for mania.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And, you know, we've had manias from the earliest days in the country and financial bubbles that have built up around many of them.
--:-- Julia Furlan: This bubble would set the stage for technology becoming a cultural and economic force in the world, you know, for better or worse.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Roger, who made his fortune investing in tech but is now one of the industry's loudest critics, thought that if his hero Jerry Garcia had been alive to see the tide starting to turn, that maybe he'd play us a song as a warning.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Grateful Dead's Ship of Fools.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It encapsulates the fundamental problem in Silicon Valley, which is that the people leading the tech community are disconnected from the reality of the people that they touch.
--:-- Julia Furlan: They are insensitive and unaware of the responsibility that comes with great power.
--:-- Julia Furlan: And they have essentially created an environment where we are willing participants in our own demise.
--:-- Julia Furlan: The question is, can we learn?
--:-- Julia Furlan: Or are we a ship of fools?
--:-- Julia Furlan: Next time on Go For Broke, the ship of fools sets sail.
--:-- Julia Furlan: We're going to take a closer look at the boom before the bust because nobody sees that iceberg yet.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Especially the venture capitalists who truly do not get it.
--:-- Julia Furlan: There were white investors who just didn't understand why would African-Americans want to socialize.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Nobody's going to care about race in the future.
--:-- Julia Furlan: So why would anybody want a social network that had some kind of ethnic or racial kind of watering hole?
--:-- Julia Furlan: Archival clips from MTV News, CBS News, C-SPAN, KTVU News, Nat Geo's docudrama Valley of the Boom, NBC Sports, and NBC News.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Special thanks to Epic's Melisse Toussere.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Charlotte Silver is our associate producer.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Go for Broke is produced by Bridget Armstrong, Megan Kinane, and Zach Mack.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Isaac Kestenbaum is our editor.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Anil Dash is our editorial consultant for the series.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Gautam Shrikashen engineered this episode and composed our theme song.
--:-- Julia Furlan: He's leaving Vox Media this week, and we're going to miss him a lot.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Art Chung is our showrunner.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Our executive producers are Nishat Kurwa and Joshua Behrman.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Go for Broke is a production of Epic and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
--:-- Julia Furlan: If you liked this episode, and I really hope you did, please, please, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts.
--:-- Julia Furlan: It helps the show and it helps me personally know who is on my side.
--:-- Julia Furlan: Subscribe for free to the series on your favorite podcast app.
--:-- Julia Furlan: I'm Julia Furlan and, you know, just got to say, keep on trucking.
