Landfill
“Landfill” – a cartoon that illustrates how the excess of cash is diminishing the Valley of Death for many startups.
Historically, startups that could not get traction beyond the idea stage were stuck in a Valley of Death, where they could not get funding and quickly failed.
In today’s venture capital market, where there are over 5,000 first-time fund managers, 300,000 angel investors, and an active corporate venture market not solely focused on financial returns, startups are finding they can continue to get access to capital.
The consequence of this is startups remaining private companies for extended periods of time kept alive by insider venture rounds and an economy with few other places for yield.
This dynamic has also put founders in stronger positions to their investors and board members, and was arguably a contributing factor to some recent cases of reputed fraud (e.g. Ozy Media, Theranos).
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