August 9th, 1995
Netscapes Initial Public Offering starts the Dotcom boom

Netscape had a successful IPO on August 9, 1995. The stock was to be offered at $14 per share; a last-minute decision doubled the initial offering to $28 per share; the stock's value reached $75 on the first day of trading, which was nearly a record for a stock's first-day gain. The company's revenues doubled every quarter in 1995.

As popularity of the web rapidly increased, the potential for businesses to profit through a low cost platform to reach a mass potential audience, a huge amount of money was subsequently spent on so-called Dotcom startups. Low interest rates and record-setting rises in stock valuation led to high venture capital investments and over-valuation of many of the companies.