I'm not seeing the widespread public buy-in and rampant wishful thinking I've seen before.
I am... there is way too much funny money floating around into companies that have virtually no chance of ever becoming profitable. There's also a ton of institutional money being funneled into late-state companies (in much the same way that it funneled into real estate in 2007), trying to replicate the Yuri Millner/Facebook model -- but how many of those companies will become Facebook? If you need a laugh, check out the latest interview with the Slack CEO:
It’s pretty straightforward. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. This is the best time to raise money ever. It might be the best time for any kind of business in any industry to raise money for all of history, like since the time of the ancient Egyptians. It’s certainly the best time for late-stage start-ups to raise money from venture capitalists since this dynamic has been around.
And as a board member and a C.E.O., I have a responsibility to our employees, to our customers. And as a fiduciary, I think it would be almost imprudent for me not to accept $160 million bucks for 5-ish percent of the company when it’s offered on favorable terms.
We don’t have an immediate use for that money. But it increases the value of our stock and can allow potential employees to take our offers, and it reinforces the perception for our larger customers that we’ll be around for the long haul. All of that stuff.
Comments
I'm not seeing the widespread public buy-in and rampant wishful thinking I've seen before.
I am... there is way too much funny money floating around into companies that have virtually no chance of ever becoming profitable. There's also a ton of institutional money being funneled into late-state companies (in much the same way that it funneled into real estate in 2007), trying to replicate the Yuri Millner/Facebook model -- but how many of those companies will become Facebook? If you need a laugh, check out the latest interview with the Slack CEO:
It’s pretty straightforward. I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. This is the best time to raise money ever. It might be the best time for any kind of business in any industry to raise money for all of history, like since the time of the ancient Egyptians. It’s certainly the best time for late-stage start-ups to raise money from venture capitalists since this dynamic has been around.
And as a board member and a C.E.O., I have a responsibility to our employees, to our customers. And as a fiduciary, I think it would be almost imprudent for me not to accept $160 million bucks for 5-ish percent of the company when it’s offered on favorable terms.
We don’t have an immediate use for that money. But it increases the value of our stock and can allow potential employees to take our offers, and it reinforces the perception for our larger customers that we’ll be around for the long haul. All of that stuff.