I've made this comment verbally to a lot of people who seem to agree, but now that we seem to be in a firm correction maybe it's safe to say it here on HN:
The clearest, most obvious sign that the End of the Bubble was imminent was that the discussion about "startups" you'd seen in public was completely dominated by discussion of fundraising and not products. And this blog post, even though it argues against extravagant fundraising, is no different.
It's not about funding, it just isn't. Basically zero historical Unicorns needed billions of dollars in cash to bootstrap. Software companies all did it for almost free, but even Tesla (a heavy industry player competing directly with established outfits with hundreds of billion dollars in revenue!) did it on a few tens of million dollars and one too-visionary-for-his-own-damn-good angel.
The obsession with fundraising reflects the investor dollars looking for a home. It's an inherently inflationary conceit. And even now that the gravy train turned over, it's frustrating that people don't see that.
The clearest, most obvious sign that the End of the Bubble was imminent was that the discussion about "startups" you'd seen in public was completely dominated by discussion of fundraising and not products. And this blog post, even though it argues against extravagant fundraising, is no different.
It's not about funding, it just isn't. Basically zero historical Unicorns needed billions of dollars in cash to bootstrap. Software companies all did it for almost free, but even Tesla (a heavy industry player competing directly with established outfits with hundreds of billion dollars in revenue!) did it on a few tens of million dollars and one too-visionary-for-his-own-damn-good angel.
The obsession with fundraising reflects the investor dollars looking for a home. It's an inherently inflationary conceit. And even now that the gravy train turned over, it's frustrating that people don't see that.