Imo a huge problem with the business culture in the bay was that it seemed like, for years, VCs were encouraging some very irresponsible business practices in the name of growth at all costs. The low cost of lending in this environment allowed these businesses to survive by raising money whenever they needed it, which I think had a really negative effect on the software market. When the unprofitable companies can out compete the profitable ones, you essentially move to a regime where VCs are subsidizing the end user, which is unsustainable. When interest rates rose, the car suddenly decelerated and some folks went splat. A lot of user good will got burned by a sudden pivot to profitability (see the discussion on enshittification), and a lot of people's careers have been damaged. I can't help but wonder if things might have been better if we had grown sustainably, or if the current hangover was worth it for the period of blitz scaling we got.