Buy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble

Talking Points

In the United States, entrepreneurs have few options for gaining funding beyond angels and venture capitalists. Venture firms, with a tremendous amount of capital, were looking to spend it, and so urged start-ups to spend far more money than was sensible. Although the get-big-fast strategy can work, the situation in which it will do so is rare, involving a lack of current competitors and a significant head start for a company over potential competitors.

During the bubble the Financial Value Chain had no patience. There was little interest in a company that was working in the traditional fashion to get a business model right before spending lots of money and trying to go public.