Venture Summit: Has the Internet Jumped the Shark?

So I moderated a panel yesterday at AlwaysOn’s Venture Summit West, held at the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay, Calif., with the title “Is There Still an Upside to the Internet?”

Of course, I redubbed it: “Has the Internet Jumped the Shark?” For the love of All Things Fonzie, you bet it has.

The discussion centered around what I think most agree is an inflated market for start-ups, worrisome especially given a looming recession.

Here is my video and one from the panel, in this case a snippet of Benchmark Capital’s Bill Gurley talking about Second Life, in which he is an investor:

Interestingly, none of the panelists–Gurley, Glam CEO Samir Arora, Lise Buyer of Class V Group and Aggregate Knowledge CEO Paul Martino–seemed bothered by that for a variety of reasons (lots of bigger companies interested in acquiring little ones, for example).

I am a little less okay with the rampant frothiness, insane valuations and who-cares mentality, which has seeped into the market and can only result in lack of discipline and too many me-too companies.

While–thankfully–the weak IPO market is protecting the investing public from the insanity this time around (no Pets.com!), it’s still not a good thing for the industry to see too many companies without solid paths to profitability being formed with the hope of some pie-in-the-sky idea that endlesss advertising revenues will support the whole rickety enterprise.

But that’s just me.