People are still willing to invest, but the issue is really that valuations got out of control and that's really hurting a lot of companies. For too many compan

People are still willing to invest, but the issue is really that valuations got out of control and that's really hurting a lot of companies. For too many companies these days yesterday's glowing press release about being a 'unicorn' is today's oh $%#&! moment dealing with the ugly reality that sets in when valuations return to some resemblance of reality (e.g., employee stock options that become worthless, lots more tough questions about revenue and profitability and less awe over the hype). Companies that have a solid product, real revenue (i.e., their revenues aren't just coming from other companies on life support from VC cash) are profitable (or close to being so) and have a valuation based on reasonable multiples of their profit will get through the coming rough waters just fine with only a few bumps. Startups that can't tick those boxes are in for a really rough ride ahead. Somewhat ironically, the downfall of many of these startups will be that they ever allowed themselves to be valued so highly in the first place. A company that's reasonably valued at $20 million is going to be in a far better place than a unicorn once valued at $2 billion that's now valued at $500 million.