Keven Lin looks at the data on Crunchbase to determine whether we are in a bubble or not. His conclusion, based on data:
Notice that both are increasing steadily every year, but hardly an exponential increase. Compare the charts with the Nasdaq Index during the first Internet bubble. We can probably conclude that we have not reached the next tech bubble yet.
So are we in another tech bubble? The data suggests that there has been acceleration in both number and total amount of investments. Along with a surprising decline in number of new startups, this is actually a great time to be a startup founder.
This concurs with Fred Wilson's assessment:
I have not seen a better time to raise money for web startups since the late 90s.
Word of warning though: bubbles are inherently hard to predict or see from inside. The point where you really know there is a bubble is when everyone, even the bears, agrees that actually there is no bubble. That is when everything is about to go wrong.
