It wasn’t that long ago when the home pages of even large, public-traded Internet companies looked about like this:
![](https://img.sur.ly/thumbnails/620x343/g/go2net.co.uk.png)
(As a side note, I wrote a really cool post years ago about the company shown above, which you can read here.)
There were, of course, many hundreds of well-funded startups (and tens of thousands of poorly-funded ones) that died back in the Internet crash twenty years ago. It’s important to recognize, however, that a lot of them were indeed filling a true need…………..but the world just wasn’t ready yet.
Such as online delivery of groceries and other goods…………
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/280fWFU07KSkCKwfcXOvvA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyODA7aD03MjA-/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/o2GqKlKqeSy1hXIUHmTHZQ--~B/aD03MjA7dz0xMjgwO3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://s.yimg.com/hd/cp-video-transcode/prod/2020-05/13/5ebc48b95499206efedb10f4/5ebc48b95499206efedb10f5_o_U_v2.jpg)
![slopechart AMZN](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_AMZN-1-640x303.jpg)
……..and online pet supplies……….
![](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/102360495-petsdotcom.jpg?v=1598971573)
![slopechart CHWY](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_CHWY-1-640x330.jpg)
………social networks………
![](https://crackmagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MySpace.png)
![slopechart FB](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_FB-640x303.jpg)
……..payment systems for online purchases…….
![](https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/150302121505-dotcom-flooz-780x439.jpg)
![slopechart PYPL](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_PYPL-640x303.jpg)
………and online personal health information:
![](https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-vrg2lw/products/345/images/1463/drkoop_com__09500.1437012012.1280.1280.jpg?c=2)
![slopechart EHTH](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_EHTH-1-640x303.jpg)
There are still some areas that I believe will one day be very big deals, but we’re simply not there yet. Virtual reality springs to mind. I experimented with VR a few years ago (even creating a virtual Socialtrade site), and it was really cool, but – – not yet useful. In a similar fashion, I think something close to 3D printing might be an invaluable part of most households in the future, but at this point…………….nope. Too soon.
![slopechart DDD](https://slopeofhope.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slopechart_DDD-640x330.jpg)