This is completely unscientific, but once something gains this much hype I just get the gut feeling that the value has disappeared for investors. If the likes of Ashton Kutcher are there, the game's up, the secret's out - these assets are no longer undervalued. If I'm an investor, it's time to pack up and move on to find the next market inefficiency, cause I really doubt it's in YC funded startups anymore.
I disagree. Despite the high valuations, a lot of the companies in YC rise past their seed stage valuations. You may overpay a bit, but you're essentially paying for more security. Most seed stage startups flame out before they even hit Series A -- YC startups are far less susceptible to this problem.
Ashton Kutcher was a biochemical engineering major in college, and has actually gotten fairly heavily into investing. If nothing else, he'd have far more insight into press than most angel investors would.
Yeah, I probably shouldn't have mentioned Ashton Kutcher by name. I merely meant to illustrate a type of person. That is, once a thing becomes public, well-known, trendy, etc that the game is up in terms of mining value from an under valued asset.
Yeah, I figured that's what you were saying. I think it's probably not the case, since that depends heavily on deal terms, and even the most entrepreneur-friendly terms currently (such as those of Yuri Milner's Start Fund) seem like they'll be strongly net positive in outcome. YC is taking the cream of the crop, and it's probably not a bad bet to bet on the cream, even if it seems relatively expensive, because startup outcomes are extremely unevenly distributed.
"...I just get the gut feeling that the value has disappeared for investors.."
One important factor when valuating a company is the perceived risk. YC employs strenuous filtering (it has to reject 97% of the applicants), mentors and connects the founders, and already has a track record of success. This means lower risk which merits higher valuations. It has nothing to do with hype. It's the new way of creating startups combined with the old way of valuating them.
Ashton Kutcher preceded the hype. During his trophy husband days, he branched out into VC/angel investing to prove that he was more than just a pretty face married to Demi Moore.
Despite his affinity for playing idiots onscreen, he's very intelligent in real life.
The game's up when people like you start commenting on this board. Don't you have a SCRUM of SCRUM meetings to attend? That VB.NET isn't going to write itself.
