By: Senior staff writer – Easton Ellsworth

TechCrunch sparks our muse today. (Thanks to Dan Kimerling for the inspiration.)

We’ve entered a storm.

Dark clouds droop around us and the rain is beginning to get thick and heavy. Floods and casualties will occur.

I speak of the modern tech economy and that of the world in which it lives.

But in the midst of the worst tempests the world can create, there is always a calm eye where safety reigns.

Even in a global economy roiling in turmoil, there are many profitable Web 2.0 startups.

The Web has become self-consciously resilient. So have many people who have been making a living online through bubbles and busts and booms of all kinds. We enjoy a hindsight that the early Web pioneer would envy if they could see it now.

We have already watched the Internet expand and contract in concert with macroeconomic forces many times. It’s clear from experience and history that these stormy seasons can be weathered.

Indeed, the refiner’s fire is necessary to produce the finest works.

Dan looks forward to the fruits of the current flames: “As funding because tighter and tighter, it means that the rate of technological innovation will likely speed up, out of necessity to find new ways to make internet companies profitable quickly.”
A comment by Shafqat echoes Dan’s hope:

“As one of the scrappy startups getting ready to weather the storm, I couldn’t agree more. This is a great time to start building great companies – entrepreneurship is all about maximizing the output from scare resources. This is the time to prove one’s mettle. It’s obviously easier said than done, but I think replacing VC dollars with innovation and creativity will let startups not just survive, but flourish.”
Where does this lead us? The road doesn’t seem to be getting any smoother in the near future.

So:

Do we stick with the business ideas that we have now and hope that they expand enough to take care of our economy enough for us to slide past a depression?

Or do we do all we can and tinker around looking for the next new idea?

It is clear that either path will be an uphill climb. But in agreement with TechCrunch, I do hope (and believe) that diamonds will emerge in the rough.

Keep your eyes open.