Top Highlights

• In 1996 venture funds attracted $10 billion in capital; in 1997 the total jumped to $20 billion; and in 1998 it passed $26 billion.
• With an academic’s attachment to conceptual labeling, Jay Walker walked the Benchmark audience through demand collection systems, conditional purchase offers, primary and secondary demand fill, plug-in demand, bounce-off demand, and numberless other concepts.
• “The amazing thing about our business is, everyone forgets the losers—they remember the winners.”
• “We do not expect this unprecedented level of publicity to continue,” he said. But a virtuous cycle had begun. Publicity fed higher visibility and higher usage, which fed more publicity. The higher the stock climbed, the more free attention eBay received.
• Bob Kagle could not take much pleasure in the event either, imagining, as he did, whispers that the eBay success was a fluke, akin to picking up a winning lottery ticket. He found himself working all the harder after eBay, to silence criticism that he had not actually heard but that he could imagine, beyond his hearing. One monkey don’t make no sho...