When did Mark MacLeod enter the startup world?

Mark MacLeodFounder, Limitless.ceo · The Startup CEO Coach | Helping ambitious CEOs & founders scale world-changing companies without sacrificing their health, happiness, purpose, or humanity

Hot markets make life easy, Mark MacLeod - The startup CEO show

18 Feb 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:48

Mark MacLeod recounts entering the startup world in May 1999 during the height of the dot-com bubble. He describes market conditions that rewarded website traffic over business fundamentals, early IPOs (e.g., pets.com), and the lack of scrutiny companies faced when going public far earlier in their life cycles.

Questions this video answers

May 1999

Chapters

Hot markets make life easy. I entered the startup world in May of 1999. For the history buffs, you will know that that was right in the thick. Almost at the peak of the original dot com bubble, when companies were being viewed as a multiple of like their website traffic. Companies with absolutely no business model like pets.com were going public and worth crazy amounts. And unlike today, these outcomes where, you know, these companies were going public much, much earlier in their life cycle and they had no business being subject to the scrutiny of public investor markets and quarterly earnings pressure and all that stuff.