New founders in last 10 years have ONLY been in environment where money is always easy to raise at higher valuations. THAT WILL NOT LAST. When the market turns, and it will turn, we will find out who has been swimming without trunks on: many high burn rate co s will VAPORIZE.
— Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist, Silicon Valley tweetstorm king and more. This time around, he s chimed in on other recent VC talk about how much money startups are spending. (Hey, they re valued at billions, don t you know!) For example, we wrote last week about VC Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital saying Silicon Valley is taking on an amount of risk unprecedented since 99. Like Andreessen, Gurley also is predicting failure for some startups.
More from Andreessen: Hiring people is easy; layoffs are devastating. Hiring for startups is effectively one way street. Again, can t change once stuck.
Also: Lots of people, big shiny office, high expense base = Fake we ve made it! feeling. Removes pressure to deliver real results.
There s plenty more, but this was the last of the multi-part tweet: Worry.
Photo: Marc Andreessen in 2012. (Dai Sugano/Mercury News archives)
