When The Deal launched on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1999, the go-go dot-com era was in full swing. The investment atmosphere was like that of a giant casino, and everyone wanted to join a startup or invest in one, recalls venture capitalist Fred Wilson in the first episode of our video series, "A Decade of The Deal."

And as we celebrate The Deal's 10-year anniversary, we'll feature monthly video interviews with personalities from each year of The Deal's history.

Flatiron Partners, the VC firm founded by Wilson and Jerry Colonna in 1996, invested in 59 companies by the time the bubble burst in 2000. Some, such as StarMedia, crashed and burned, while others, such as comScore Inc., are thriving now. Wilson shared with us some of his memories of 1999, as well as some of his memorabilia. (He's a self-described pack rat.)

Today Wilson is a partner of Union Square Ventures, a VC firm he founded with Brad Burnham in 2005 that backs Web 2.0 companies, including microblogging service provider Twitter Inc. Wilson's A VC blog is considered required reading in entrepreneurial and VC circles, and in September when he gave a talk about the New York Internet industry from 1995 to 2008 at Web 2.0 Expo, the house was packed. - Mary Kathleen Flynn

Read our Decade of The Deal topic center