everything felt possible

what a time!

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by your best friend erin griffith

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Buddies, this is not original or all that insightful, but it upsets me that we are the same distance from 2005 as 2005 was from 1985. How is that possible?

I am aware this is a recurring meme with various time frames.

It gets me every time!

The meme is meant to remind us of the universally painful feeling that the passing of time sure feels like it’s speeding up as we get older (‘05 feels a lot closer to now than it does to ‘85, etc).

But it also applies the development of technology.

(Business Hero™ Bill Gates in the dark ages of 1985, Business Hero™ Mark Zuckerberg in the desktop ages of 2005, and an Anthropic office that looks like it was created by AI in 2025.)

When I read articles about what AGI will do to the world, I wonder if not long from now, life during the 2020s will look and seem as quaint and archaic as it did in the 80s.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’m on book leave and contemplating the BIG QUESTIONS. As a reminder, I’m writing a book about start-ups in the ZIRP era between 2008 and 2022. I’m only up to the 2012-2014 period, when mobile apps were exploding, social networks were still seen as a force for good, start-ups were the key to economic prosperity and everything felt possible. What a time!

Buddies, I would love to hear from you or your start-up + VC friends who were there. Did you take advantage of the “millennial lifestyle subsidy” provided by VC-backed services like on-demand rides, food delivery, butlers, shipping, dry cleaning, meal kits, valet or cookies? Did your startup hire someone to make a cartoon demo video with a voiceover and acoustic guitar for your product launch? (And did you throw that out after Dollar Shave Club’s launch and try to mimic that instead?) Did you work at or invest in at a daily deal / flash sale, DTC or SoLoMo start-up? Did you go to the August 2012 YC demo day? Do you have fond memories of the GroupMe Grill at SXSW? Did you take money from an non-tech corporate VC fund like 7-11, The Campbell Soup Company or Sesame Street? Do you subscribe to this newsletter because we met at the very first WeWork camp? Do you simply want to reminisce nostalgically for a more innocent time in the zeitgeist?

Let’s chat!

Important Business Matters

Startup everyone’s into: Household robot startups.

Startup everyone’s over: Why are all the ads for AI just so bad?

Reason to go on living: Movie theaters in small towns are thriving as nonprofits. ❤️

Reason to take up residence under your weighted blanket: Everything you say to your Amazon Echo will soon be sent to Amazon.

Latest crush: Encouraging news about dementia rates.

Latest heartbreak: For the sake of free speech we probably do not want to repeal Section 230.

Latest startup fraud trial I’m sad to not be covering: Charlie Javice.

Latest startup spy drama: More juicy details on the the Deel-Rippling spying situation everyone has been obsessing over.

Latest thing the kids are into: ABUNDANCE!

Latest thing the olds are into: Zero-sum thinking.

Latest thing the rich are into: Backyard eggs, more expensive than you’d think.

a dall-e summary of this newsletter / accidental sneak preview of my book cover:

dall-e knew that VC = Patagonia vests. 💀💀💀

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Thanks for reading, buddies! If you enjoy reading EGTttHoB™, I’d love it if you would “like” this post and forward it to all of your BFFs. If you enjoy hatereading it, same request. But if you just plain hate reading it, please tell no one, or maybe an enemy!)