(And Why I Think It's Actually Good News)
Recently, I found myself remembering the early days of the online business boom, when it felt like everyone was starting something new. Someone was launching a blog. Someone else was creating a course. A friend was leaving corporate America to try consulting. Another was opening an Etsy shop.
Everywhere you looked, people were asking themselves: What if I built something of my own?
And this wasn’t just excitement; it felt like possibility.
Books like Escape from Cubicle Nation, The 4‑Hour Workweek, and The $100 Startup were like permission slips giving people a way to imagine a different kind of life, one where meaningful work didn’t have to fit neatly inside an office building, and where you could create something that belonged to you.
For many of us, that was an incredibly hopeful time.
So lately I’ve been wondering what happened to that energy. Because if you’ve spent any time online recently, it can feel like the spark that once fueled so many new ideas has dimmed.
Instead of excitement, there’s skepticism. Instead of possibility, there’s exhaustion. Instead of “You can do this,” the conversation often sounds more like, “The market is saturated. AI is changing everything. Social media is impossible. Maybe you missed your chance.”
I don’t think that’s true. In fact, I think we’re asking the wrong question.
Instead of: What happened to the online business boom? The better question is: What kind of businesses does this new era reward?
And I think the answer should make us all hopeful.
The Boom Didn’t Die. It Grew Up.
When people talk about the “good old days” of online business, they’re remembering something real. It definitely was easier to get noticed as there were fewer competitors and social media wasn’t as crowded (it was also more “social”).
A single thoughtful blog post could bring visitors to your website for years. Growing an email list didn’t require mastering multiple algorithms or filming a dozen short videos every week. The internet felt quieter, more spacious.
We should have expected that was never going to last.
As more people discovered online business, more people built online businesses. Markets matured, platforms changed, and customers became more discerning. Those are all things that happen when any industry grows up. .
The Biggest Shift Wasn’t Technology
People blame algorithms or AI or the pace of social media. And sure, those things matter, but I don’t think they tell the whole story. The biggest shift is that we’ve all become better consumers.
We’ve all bought the course that wasn’t very good. We’ve all signed up for the webinar that turned into little more than a long sales pitch. We’ve all downloaded the free guide that didn’t teach us anything at all.
We’ve all learned to recognize hype. I happen to think that’s healthy because it raises the standard for everyone.
It means the people who came for what they thought was easy money left, and it makes room for something else.
Trust Is the New Competitive Advantage
Ten years ago, simply showing up online made you interesting. Today, showing up isn’t enough.
People want to know whether they can trust you. They want to know if you’ve actually done the work you’re teaching. They want to know whether you understand the problem they’re facing. They want to feel that you’re trying to help them, not just sell to them.
Those are better questions to ask. And they favor the kinds of founders I care most about serving: the thoughtful ones, the generous ones, the ones who care more about solving real problems than chasing trends.
We’ve Been Measuring Success All Wrong
For years, online business culture encouraged us to think bigger, faster, louder. More followers. More launches. More offers. More automation. More scaling.
But somewhere along the way, many founders quietly started asking a different question: What if I don’t want a business that takes over my life?
I hear that question all the time, and it’s not because people lack ambition, but because they’ve redefined success. They don’t want freedom from work. They want work that fits into a life they actually want to live.
Those are two very different things.
This Is Why I’m So Optimistic
If you ask me, this is one of the best times in years to build a purpose‑driven business. I’m not saying it’s easy. Building trust takes longer than building attention; and creating something genuinely useful is harder than copying whatever is trending.
But purpose‑driven founders have never been looking for shortcuts. Most of them were never trying to become internet celebrities. They wanted to solve meaningful problems, help real people, and create work they were proud to put their name on.
And today’s marketplace rewards exactly those qualities. Not necessarily overnight, but over time.
Maybe We Needed This Shift
I’ve started thinking about the early online business movement as the Escape Era. People wanted to escape the cubicle, escape the commute, escape work that no longer fit.
That movement changed countless lives, and I’m grateful it happened.
But I think we’ve entered something different now: the Integration Era. Instead of asking, How do I escape my life? more people are asking, How do I build work that actually fits my life?
I love that question because it’s slower, wiser, and leads to businesses that last.
(And if you’ve ever read Pam Slim’s Escape From Cubicle Nation, then you know the bigger message was aligning your values, skills, and passions for a more holistic way of living, not necessarily escaping.)
So…Did You Miss Your Chance?
I don’t think so. If you’re starting a business now, I think you missed one version of entrepreneurship — the louder, faster version that sometimes made it seem like success was just one funnel or one viral post away.
But this version, the one built on trust, clarity, generosity, and genuine expertise? I believe it’s just getting started.
At The Braven, that’s the kind of business I want to help people build. Not because it’s the quickest path, but because it’s the one most likely to still be standing ten years from now.