Erik Hanberg’s visit to our class was very interesting. He gave us insight on what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in the age of the internet. Erik talked a lot about how he created income for himself through his various interests. He currently self-publishes a wide range of novels. Erik does through tools at his disposal the internet. He hires people to edit his writing, create book covers, and give him audience feedback. I thought this was extremely cool that he could do it all on his own. This reminded me how much the internet has truly changed this. It has given people the freedom to pursue many opportunities within their interests. It also gives people more accessibility than they had before. People can do so many more things independently. Like become their own publishers. Erik also described all the steps he took to get his name out there as a budding author. He talked about buying email addresses and sending them information about one of his book he did not yet write. On top
The internet’s whole entire dynamic changed with the introduction and adoption of the Mosaic browser. New internet companies sprung up in massive droves. Investors started to speculate on what the companies were actually worth. This speculation caused a crash that impacted the whole industry. The dot.com crash was a direct result of too much investment, too quickly. Many companies were valued for way more than they were actually worth. This created a culture of over-investment. That investment caused companies to put too much faith into a new industry. There was no guarantee that internet companies would actually do well and continue to do consistently well. But since the internet was so new, no one questioned it. Companies got lots of capital before they could prove how profitable they would be. Once the “bubble burst,” everyone lost everything. Companies could no longer keep themselves afloat. The bust hit everyone extremely hard. People lost their jobs and livelihoods. A lot of p