News of 42floors' acquisition by Knotel hit the tape last week. I remember, I think in 2014, their CEO Jason wrote a series of widely-read blog posts, about the company, which got picked up and amplified by the startup hype machine. 42floors became "hot", earning a ton of buzz—attention, traffic, credibility—people wanted to be attached to it. The consensus view seemed to be that they were on track to revolutionize commercial real estate, not get acquired to "build the blockchain of property".

But that's how it happened. This all came up because Caroline asked what I thought about WeWork hiring Bjarke Ingels a few weeks ago; I told her that's neat, but I've seen too many things fly off the rails/die/explode to be impressed by one good hire; these days, what impresses me most is sound business fundamentals. I realized, I've been in this game (Bay Area tech) for seven years now, and I've seen a lot come and go.

Some previously "hot" things:

• famo.us: super-hot Javascript framework, unclear whether they were able to build a business. I don't know anyone using it.
• 4square: checkins. Still a going concern but I don't know anyone who uses it.
• turntable.fm: supposed to be the next Napster; the domain doesn't even work anymore.
• Starfighter: patio11's attempt to revolutionize hiring, dead on arrival
• comma.ai: won TC disrupt. Where are they now?
• Crittercism: I worked at this place 3 years; renamed to Apteligent and now a footnote after the VMware acquisition
• Klout: "the future of social media measurement", acquired by Lithium, shut down
• My friend Tom's work on WebOS (lives on in LG Smart TVs)
• rdio: the Pandora-killer, "revolutionizing radio"
• About 3/4 of my AngelPad class: Shoplogic, Kout, Frugalo, LendFriend, SourceNinja
• Grubwithus: my friend Nikhil worked here 4 years, it's history
• Dozens of Twitter startups: hopscotch, Tweetdeck, Simply Measured (I knew the founders from Seattle)
• Ridepal: my friend Nat's company
• Wakemate: my roommate Mantas worked here before the founders disappeared back to New York, abandoning the company without shutting it down

It made me jealous of architects; at least when they get a building put up, there's a good chance it will last more than 1-2 years.

I'm also reminded again how silly it is to pursue fame; it burns hot and fast; enjoy your 15 minutes, while it last.