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What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

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Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#21
post #3

> There is a LOT of money still sitting on the sidelines waiting to be deployed. And it WILL be deployed, that’s what investors do. Reminds me of the saying: "Venture Capital starts with too many good ideas chasing too little money, and ends with too much money chasing too few good ideas."

The saying might just be an observation, but I'm not sure what else people should be saying about VC. VC matches people-with-ideas to money. Have they ever advertised being anything else (while sober)?

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the previous crash, even viable companies that were growing and made sense were brought close to crisis. Currently Nikola motors is worth a few billion. In a crash they'd be dead.

That just means the market is illogical though, does not mean a crash must mean all of sudden all investors are logical? As quoted by the famous Keynes, “The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” It’s like meme stocks like AMC/APE and GME. Does any of it make sense to me? Nope. Are people making and losing a ton of money? Sure. Is it a good indication of US economy health or dare I say, US…

I guess I would say that a crash is when the market shifts to being illogical towards the negative side, where even seemingly good companies are struggling.

I wouldn't call it a crash if there is positive irrationality.

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#23
post #3

> There is a LOT of money still sitting on the sidelines waiting to be deployed. And it WILL be deployed, that’s what investors do. Reminds me of the saying: "Venture Capital starts with too many good ideas chasing too little money, and ends with too much money chasing too few good ideas."

Broad markets will crash and LPs will ask for capital back. The overhang will drop without requiring investment.

This happened in 2002.

Not all LP commitments have the same durability.

It’s like leasing a building to a first time restaurant owner or a big public company doing restaurants and getting identical rent. One is more durable (and valuable) than the other. But it gets left out of cash flow.

Same with counts of dry powder.

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#25
post #3

> There is a LOT of money still sitting on the sidelines waiting to be deployed. And it WILL be deployed, that’s what investors do. Reminds me of the saying: "Venture Capital starts with too many good ideas chasing too little money, and ends with too much money chasing too few good ideas."

Broad markets will crash and LPs will ask for capital back. The overhang will drop without requiring investment.

checkout the citrix bond situation. unable to raise targeted goal through issuing corporate yields. its really scary we are seeing corporate bond yields spiking and liquidity drying up.

if a legitimate large corporation is having trouble raising money, its a huge red flag.

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going in the other direction, we’re 11% above the pre-COVID high for the S&P. And that’s with $6+ trillion dollars having been pumped into the economy. There’s plenty of crash and plenty of inflation left in the pipes.

Would you consider it a crash if S&P was just flat for a decade?

That would be stagflation, I believe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#27

The recent (since the 80s) history of financial ups and downs has been - savings and loan - junk bond - dot com / financial engineering (Enron) - mortgage backed securities - VC Basically, money chases outsized returns, some new thing emerges to satisfy the demand, it becomes effectively a ponzi / house of cards, it falls apart, we shift to the next thing. It's impossible to predict when and what will happen of cours…

Margin Call takes place in 2008, but its depiction of how the investors respond to a crisis is evergreen.

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#28

The recent (since the 80s) history of financial ups and downs has been - savings and loan - junk bond - dot com / financial engineering (Enron) - mortgage backed securities - VC Basically, money chases outsized returns, some new thing emerges to satisfy the demand, it becomes effectively a ponzi / house of cards, it falls apart, we shift to the next thing. It's impossible to predict when and what will happen of cours…

There's a great book to be written about SPACs, the last gasp attempt to cash out companies before the party ended.

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#29
post #4

So many people working in VC went straight into it after Stanford without ever starting a company, like it’s investment banking or something. Maybe the VC industry will shrink along with the startups, or at least the unhelpful partners.

Why start a company when you can get rich risk free

Re: What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious what you think crash means. 2021 definitely inflated our stock market way too much but we're definitely within reasonable corrected zone IMO. What should we expect as a crash? Even with the Great recession, we're looking at a 27% drawdown so we're about halfway there?

In the previous crash, even viable companies that were growing and made sense were brought close to crisis. Currently Nikola motors is worth a few billion. In a crash they'd be dead.

Your attitude isn't unique, I'd describe it as "It's not a crash until the people/companies I consider fraudulent get destroyed." I hear it about some crypto investors in particular. There's a lot of people who basically consider recessions cosmic justice and want a cleansing fire to reign down on certain entities/people they despise. I propose: that's not what a recession/crash is.
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