Let's face it, we're living in an era of severe deflation. It's cheaper than ever to start a company with open source and cloud hosting. Real Estate (residential and commercial) is at a generational low, making it easier to find a business location or (save the Valley) an inexpensive location to live while launching your dream.
At the same time, I've seen a behavior I can only call"Series B at a Series A price". Meaning, I've encountered more investors than ever before who are looking to put money into very advanced companies stage-wise, but only at a low or early stage valuation. That is, the expectation level of how much a company will accomplish is often irrationally high, so much so that many of these potential investors expect Series B style metrics when a company has not had the resources to get there. I fundamentally believe this is at the heart of the Series A crunch we're hearing so much about; a lot of investors really want to invest later stage, and aren't willing to invest in would be considered true Series A; some proof points but the model and metrics aren't yet complete.
What will change this behavior? Who knows. A crash certainly wouldn't hurt, but I'm afraid a number of good companies will get caught up in this unrealistic wave of expectations brought on by price deflation. We'll see.
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