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The Year In Tech Tweets: Bubble Talk, Sellout Journalists, Tweet Of The Year, And Much More…

  • December 23, 2015
  • December 23, 2015
From VCs crying "bubble" to Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca crossfire, we did a retrospective on the year by digging up our favorite Tweets.

One by-product of constantly interacting with our customers and fans on Twitter means we come across plenty of choice tweets.

Whether it’s the endless debate about whether or not we’re in a bubble, startup culture, or good old-fashioned twitter fights, tech twitter never fails to deliver on the pulse of tech, VC, and startups. Here’s our look at the year in tech tweets:

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1. The b-word

Much of 2015 was spent reading the tea leaves for signs of a tech bubble. a16z’s Marc Andreessen has been a staunch opponent of the bubble talk:

Andreessen, along with researchers at his firm, have written extensively about how “this time is different.” We may all just be paranoid:

In contrast, Benchmark’s Bill Gurley has been vocal about a tech bubble for quite some time.

Many saw signs of an emotion-driven cycle.

All the bubble talk wore on Y Combinator’s Sam Altman… then again he didn’t seem so sure.

According to some, top funds are using the b-word to exploit their buying position. Shots fired.

Alternative-metal band Linkin Park now runs a venture fund (Machine Shop Ventures) that has stakes in Lyft, Shyp, and Robinhood. Sign of a bubble?

Profits are, apparently, overrated.

Whatever your position on the bubble question, public markets haven’t been friendly to private market valuations:

2. Valley swag

These were the tweets that captured the zeitgeist of startup-land — and the frothy funding climate — in 2015. Whatever side of the bubble you’re on, things sure were bonkers:

Philz just does it better.

Guess it’s still a programmer’s market:

3. On-demand, all the time

2015 was also marked by hype surrounding the rise of the on-demand economy. Not all were fans:

And with the 1099 contractor controversy bringing down startups like Homejoy, doubts about the on-demand economy grew louder.

Zirtual was another casualty.

4. TechCrunch Disrupt-ed… by VC

This was the year everyone in tech journalism moved to the dark side.

5. Tech Twitter drama

Whether it was beef between VCs or between Amazon and The New York Times, there was no shortage of drama and Twitter burns.

Some friendly encouragement from one early-stage investor to another, 🙂

In a rather epic debate about Twitter’s content rules, Sacca delivered this sweet burn to Mark Cuban:

In case you missed the Great Medium Battle Of 2015, Amazon and the New York Times butted heads regarding the Times’ exposé on the absence of work-life balance for Amazon employees:

Amazon_NYT1

Hours later, the Times’s Executive Editor came back with a pointed rebuttal:
Amazon_NYT2

Then, Amazon came back again:
Amazon_NYT3

Maybe the most astonishing thing? The NYT published its rebuttal on Medium instead of, you know, its own very public website.

6. Potpourri

Some tweets were so 2015 we couldn’t leave them off.

7. The Tweet of the Year:

8. CBI love

Whether they know it or not, some of our favorite follows are fans of CB Insights.

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Feature image credit: Christopher Michel. Creative Commons license Attribution 2.0 Generic.

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