Hot Takes

Have We Reached Peak “Downturn Thought-Leadership” Yet?

Revenue

OMFG, I certainly do hope so.

If I hear or read another “how to do ‘X’ in a downturn,” I’m gonna puke.

For the past quarter, the investors’ community has been hammering down on the founders of the companies in their portfolio about winter’s coming and interest rates and inflation increasing and Ukrainian war and public markets, and yadda yadda [insert your other favorite reason here].

Beware founders: funding is going to dry up, and valuations are going to come down; trim the fat and lay off your worst performers, or you might not survive the next year or two.

Most investors recommend raising an extension or a down round (how convenient) and preparing for the worst… some of them going as far as recommending an unheard-of-before 36-months runway. 

Then, lo and behold, summer comes, and every investor goes on vacation as per usual, some not before having announced a new hundreds-of-millions fund, while Q2 early stage investment activity goes down not even double-digit percent-wise YoY (just ~9% as per Crunchbase).

Certainly doesn’t feel like the nuclear wasteland it was announced to be.

It’s funny; most founders tend to think that most investors are smarter than them… but if that was the case, they would be the ones starting companies rather than investing in them.

Instead of losing your sanity over whether we are in a bull or bear market (who cares at the end of the day), focus on building a resilient growth engine that can withstand any market condition and fuel a profitable, growing business.

Groundbreaking idea, huh?