From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Startups Run Out of Time and Money | Hacker News Reader

From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Startups Run Out of Time and Money

nytimes.com

45 pointsKnuthIsGod16 comments

The question to me is how many second order effects will there be?

How many startups were revenue positive because they sold primarily to startups ( like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38502012 )?

Are wages going to decrease for software engineers because of an increase in supply?

Is California heading back into fiscal deficit when capital gains taxes from software employees decrease?

Will pension funds/VC LPs have a harder time with their obligations due to more startups failing (doubt it because in my understanding VC is a small portion of overall allocations, but who knows)?

Etc.

When I read stuff like this: "...Hopin, a start-up that raised more than $1.6 billion and was once valued at $7.6 billion, sold its main business for just $15 million..." it becomes clear why other parts of the world can't compete with Silicon Valley. No infinite reserves of paper money and monopoly chips...

Hopin isn’t really a Silicon Valley company. The founder is an Australian living in the UK, the team is remote and the lead investors in the unicorn rounds (Coatue, Tiger Global) are NY based.

You can compete if you startup has low cost of operating but if you startup has high computing costs and high software engineering cost, you will probably run out of money sooner or later.

China is probably the only country that can compete with US in the computer tech industry because they can also throw billions at tech startups....just look at TikTok(apparently they got popular because they invested billions in creating and promoting TikTok).

I thought tik tok grew through virality.

But for virality, you need good content and apparently they spent a lot of money on promotion and user acquisition.

Then why did I keep seeing ads for TikTok on YouTube? They clearly spent a ton.

I am irritated when comments like yours imply that there aren't wealthy people in the Silicon Valley. I'm sorry to tell you, but the central bank isn't investing into startups.

Seems like as good time as any to revisit the advantages of having and challenges of building a cash-flow-positive bootstrapped company (e.g. [0],[1])

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34740105 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37657519

https://archive.is/HNJoo

Interesting to read some of the comments on some of the posts linked in this article.

Startup Decoupling & Reckoning: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34982309

Braid is dead, long live Braid: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37797696

Could be. Could be that more credit is created to fuel more growth and ideas as things accelerate with LLMs. I don’t think the east coast people have a clue what’s happening out here on the west coast sometimes. My perception in the PNW is there’s a LOT going on and people with great ideas.

There’s just too many good ideas. Flat out. Plus money isn’t real, it’s a construct. Looks at the feds books and how much debt they hold. It’s become meaningless. None of that will ever get paid back. And no one cares. They only care about the potential ideas that can be realized and sold.

Or not. Maybe this is the end. But that breaks my model of humans being insatiable for dreaming and building.

> Could be

Companies are going bankrupt, there's nothing theoretical about it.

Could be. Also, companies are always going bankrupt. Your statement is valid and sound.

I have no idea what that "could be" is referring to.

The article is about startups that went bankrupt, i fail to see what part of it is "could be" when it already happened.

I know. I can see your confusion. Clearly we just have differing perspectives is all. It's not that big a deal.

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