After a dearth of IPOs over the last five years, we've suddenly found ourselves back on the brink of stupidity. Riverbed Technology, a terrific company, successfully went public and has a market cap of $1.2 billion. The company--I really do love it--has small revenues and doesn't make money. I'm no Einstein, but $1.2 billion sure seems like a lot of dough. CommVault followed with another successful IPO. A good company in a tough market that hasn't made money raised a big pile of cash, most of which didn't go to the company but instead paid off investors. Double-Take Software is in registration and waiting to go out; it has made money for the last year, so I'm dying to see what kind of valuation it can pull off. Isilon Systems is also set to go.

There are a bunch of computer companies that have built annual revenues of $50 million to $100 million champing at the bit right now, which means there are a ton of venture capitalists sitting on boards telling CEOs to stop making money and start spending! Hire fast or you're fired. Spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Forget the fundamentals, there's gold in them thar hills!

Hey, VC/Wall St. guys, what if we encourage these companies to run real businesses and go public? How about valuing them based on what they achieve instead of what comes to you in a dream? I'm glad you're going to make money again, I really am. I'd be even happier if you could do it without being idiotic.