Lots of talk today about the money going into the current wave of next-gen start-ups. Fair enough I guess, but I still come back to first principles:

  1. Is it profitable, or can it be without much squinting?

  2. Is it sustainable, within a reasonable expectation?

  3. Does it matter to customers?

Some of these things do hit those three filters, but many of them? Hardly, and they stand a strong chance of being filed in the feature-not-business pile, or the that-was-cool-once pile.

As Om points out, there should be a difference between the "do it" boom and any potential investment boom. The ability to "do it" - lean, mean and smart - is what has made this go-round that much more exciting.

And as Mark says, it sure does feel like this is becoming a lot like Bubble 1.0.

If this rebirth of online suffers the same fate as the first go-around, well, that would be a shame.

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