Suddenly investors are looking for experience and a few grey hairs. The big losers in all this have been the army of small investors who were bewitched by the promise of high-tech riches. In the first half of the year there was startling growth in the number of people trading shares online. And people using the internet to buy shares for the first time were often keen to buy internet shares. The internet does not change the basic rules of business and not every high-tech firm will turn out to be a Microsoft.
Venture capitalists say there are still plenty of good ideas coming across their desks.
And perhaps next year they will start putting money behind them once more.