The 2000s were a startup winter after the dotcom bubble burst. In those days you were extremely lucky if you could raise over $100k in funding and in revenue $100m was the ultimate fantasy. ZIRP was the 2010s
You're right, what did happen around that time is that founders would be kept in charge of their companies instead of being replaced by CEOs (e.g. Founders Fund). The combination of the founders staying in power facilitated with dual class shares/ZIRP in 2010s (Google had their 2004 IPO) would be more correct.