2 ms·

Well, this is certainly undesirable.

• cryptoz 11y ago
  Is it undesirable, though? Maybe I am misunderstanding what Fidelity is doing, but it seems to be a careful reconsideration of the very high valuations placed on these startups. This kind of re-adjustment is exactly what would be necessary to keep the market stable and avoid a runaway bubble, right?
  • potatolicious 11y ago
    That's my read too - if we want to prevent a pop we need to be letting air out of the balloon regularly. Some skepticism from investors is good, more due diligence re: valuation is good. This is a pretty mild correction overall, which is good for everyone. I'd be much more worried if Fidelity were snapping up startup shares at ever-higher valuations without ever reckoning actual performance. As people who work in the industry, this might mean a mild slowdown in hiring as funding becomes a bit more difficult, but it also may prevent the catastrophic alternative which is the bottom falling out from under us and massive tech-sector unemployment. Personally I think all of these recent announcements are good for startup employees. For the last few years some of us have been expressing a lot of skepticism about the real value of startup options and how much they can realistically exit for. Between valuation write-downs like this, and the face-plant IPOs of the last couple of years, I think people are starting to see the true value of startup options and I hope it results in people being much more discerning about how they're being compensated.