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At this point, pretty much everyone and all their Twitter followers have speculated about a new tech bubble. Every time a new social media company's valuation or acquisition is announced--as Skype's was yesterday--the blogosphere erupts with posts about how the recent influx of capital into start ups and their respective lack of revenue models resembles the tech bubble of the early 2000s. Then others deny such a comparison, insisting that the country is better prepared, the companies are different and everyone will make oodles money this time.
However, it's worth pointing out that most of those bubble deniers are the same people that will make oodles of money if in fact the bubble accusers are wrong: venture capitalists. Informed by years of experience and millions lost when the last bubble burst, some of the biggest VC names like Fred Wilson, Chris Dixon and Peter Thiel are becoming more and more vocal in asserting how the two dot-com booms are inherently different. The reasons are all about the same: we learned our lesson in the last time around; the American economy is better prepared for new web-driven business model; for the most part, the way that everyone's coming up with these so-called valuations is baseless anyways, so how could anyone say they're overblown.