Also anecdotally: by 2006 I also don't think it was that hard, in SF. 2008 of course kicked off a new cycle of capital scarcity, but, what it seemed like to me was that two gold rushes kicked off in earnest around that time which in tech seemed to mitigate any major difficulties for software people: First the online/Facebook gaming goldrush (Zynga being the poster child, but there were dozens more publishers, advertising and monetization firms drinking from that trough) and of course the App Store goldrush.

In 2008 I remember being in tech was able to largely ignore the recession that everyone else was getting reamed by because mobile, Facebook games and generally social media, and general Web 2.0 was getting big investment across the board. The low hanging fruits still had not all been plucked.

If I had been smarter I would have bought up property at what I now know were the lowest prices I’d ever see, but alas, I did not