Biz column content changes 10 years later

Mike Cassidy, who is returning to the San Jose Mercury News business section to write a column after writing one for local news for the past few years, muses about how his column will be different than the biz section column he wrote in the late 1990s.

Cassidy writes, “Things are so different now from how they were during those boom days. Back in the day I was able to write goofy stories about how a Yahoo worker cashed in her stock options to buy a castle in Cleveland. I was able to write about how a Vietnamese refugee, who escaped his country by boat, arrived in the U.S. with nothing and went on to start a company that left him worth something like $80 million at the close of its first day of public trading.

“I don’t think I’m going to be writing those kinds of stories this time around. Still, I’d love to hear from you if you have something you think is story-worthy.

“Not to give too much away, but my idea for reconnecting with Silicon Valley was to write my first column from a coffee shop popular with entrepreneurs. Wouldn’t you know it? The New York Times’ Katie Hafner wrote about a different San Francisco coffee shop that is poplar with entrepreneurs.

“I guess coffee shops really are Silicon Valley’s new garages.”

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