Has this guy considered that it was just coincidence?
That the founders were going to start a company anyway and just didn't let the fact that it was a down economy stop them? I mean, really: how many of you are specifically not doing a startup because the economy is bad now?
Depends... If my contract runs out and an opportunity doesn't line up, there is a backup startup plan. How many people are writing iPhone apps due to unemployment? How many engineers are willing to take a chance on a startup because there's nothing else out there, or are willing to take lower salaries?
I would be more concerned with these examples being black swans: we notice them precisely because they're rare. I would like to see a fortune 1000 list by date compared to upturn/downturn of the economy to feel more comfortable about the observation.
It's more probably necessity than coincidence. People tend to innovate a lot more on war/recession times, for a simple reason called survival: if you lose your stability and find no way to get it back, there's little hope other than innovating (if you're able to do that, of course)...
Also, when the money is abundant, people tend to get some and do silly stuff, since it's so cheap you can afford losing it and starting over again. Which means people that take risks in risky times actually THINK before they raise 10 million dollars to fund a startup.
The lenders (aka VCs) also get a lot more lenient (aka dumb) and invest on stuff that is very unlikely to ever succeed, when money is cheap...
