Tag: dotcom bubble

I Have Seen a Real Recession. Everything After That Felt Different.


I started my career in 2000.

That was the year the dot-com bubble burst.

Just before that, there was a wave called the Y2K problem.
Everyone was learning COBOL.
People were flying to the US.
Opportunities were everywhere.

And suddenly… it stopped.

Not slowed down.
Not reduced.
Stopped.

From 2000 to 2004, those four years were not just difficult — they were silent.

Projects vanished.
Hiring froze.
Hope became a question mark.

If you were in IT at that time, you didn’t worry about growth.
You worried about survival.

That was the first time I understood what a recession really feels like.

After that, I saw many “crises.”

2008 financial crisis
Dubai property slowdown
COVID-19 pandemic
Wars, global tensions, constant recession headlines

Every time, people said:
“This is big. This will change everything.”

And yes… they were big.
They did shake systems.
They did create fear.

But somewhere inside me, there was a quiet comparison always running.

I had already seen something different.
Something deeper.
Something more absolute.

So even when the world was calling these moments “crisis”…
a part of me kept asking:

“Is this really the same?”

And slowly, over time, I understood why it didn’t feel the same.

Why later crises didn’t feel the same

1. They were shocks… not shutdowns

2008 — banks collapsed, but industries adapted.
COVID — lockdown hit hard, but tech demand exploded.
Wars — supply chains got disturbed, not destroyed.

Work slowed.
But it never disappeared.

👉 In 2000, work vanished.
👉 Later, work only shifted.

2. The system learned how to respond

After the dot-com crash, the world evolved.

Governments act faster now.
Central banks inject liquidity immediately.
Companies don’t depend on one market anymore.

👉 Crises are now managed, not left to collapse.

3. India itself transformed

In 2000:
We were dependent — mostly on US IT demand.

Today:
We are diversified.

Domestic consumption is strong.
Digital adoption is massive.
New sectors keep emerging — D2C, SaaS, infra, startups.

👉 If one sector slows, another one picks up.

The dot-com crash was a collapse; everything after that has been a correction — and that difference changes how you see every crisis.

How I bootstrapped my first venture!!!


This is how I bootstrapped my first venture which was started during the starting days of Dotcom bubble.

 

  • Shared office space from a Gingelly oil company where they gave us 100 sq ft space, 5 systems, internet connection and a telephone line for $200 a month.
  • Provided out of our business model services which helped us sustain till we got a groove into our core business. Services we offered were;
    • Linux installation
    • System Assembling & Trouble shooting
    • Java Training
    • Offering real time projects for college students
    • Sub sourcing resumes to manpower companies

Since we were out of college we had big network of friends who were college pass outs or students which helped in spreading our services and we got decent response to recover our monthly expense.

  • Since it was recession there was acute shortage of jobs. We offered jobs for deposit and we got tremendous response for this. We made $2000 from two people which were our six months liquidity with which we stopped all non core activities and concentrated on core business.
  • Apart from those two paid resource. We hired talented people who joined us for no pay. This changed our fortunes.

Having generated 6 months cash flow and a team of talented people we were able to win projects with the HELP of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and market places like scriptlance.com and elance.com.