4 ms·

The author is afraid about all the money that is being put into startups that is not coming back again into the markets. "...most tech startups that survive ar

The author is afraid about all the money that is being put into startups that is not coming back again into the markets. "...most tech startups that survive are sold rather than become public companies. " The article then explains that "The value of U.S. technology company acquisitions fell by 66 percent in the first six months of 2017 compared with the same stretch a year ago". All this analysis is interesting but unfortunately there is no mention of the tech startups that don't survive. I believe that might be the key factor for this. It would also be nice to survey how many silicon valley startups are considering ICO's instead of IPO's and try to reason if that might bring new impact into the scene.

claytonjy 9y ago
on ICO vs IPO, how does that work? Are there really non-blockchain companies making cryptocoins for the sole purpose of raising capital to spend on entirely orthogonal concerns?
- HugoDaniel 9y ago
  I am also not sure, given the current state of the hype i believe that most companies working on products that depend on network effect might at least be considering making their own tokens. Away from the hype there is also the tax problem (the elephant in the room in most cryptocurrency/ICO articles). The country where the company is based and how it implements rules to tax and control such money might influence this at lot. A company is arguably starting with the wrong foot by thinking that it can get away from taxation with such money. But besides money isn't a lot of the startup scene also about disruption ? edited: typo and final question
  - claytonjy 9y ago
    So the notion that any non-crypto company is considering an ICO in lieu of an IPO is pure speculation?
- acchow 9y ago
  US regulations would not allow this.
donkeyd 9y ago
IMHO, ICOs seem to have much less due dilligence going on than IPOs and prey on the uninformed that hope to invest in the next Bitcoin. If anything they're even more of a confirmation that money is invested in products without any real perspective. And for an example of a startup that didn't survive, take Pebble, $15m in VC funding, ended up being sold for $23m. Not sure though how much of that actually went back to the VC. And this was a startup that had a paying customer base, active development community and a product in many big-chain stores.
- sharemywin 9y ago
  How much ICO money is actually from Bitcoins and Ethereums price inflation. If you had 10 bitcoin 2 years ago(about $2800) what do you do with it? if you put it in Ethereum you would have about 560,000 usd today. why not put it in some projects that have understandable use cases.
  - donkeyd 9y ago
    True, was thinking about this last week, if these companies were to try and cash out, BTC would have a flash crash.

claytonjy 9y ago

on ICO vs IPO, how does that work? Are there really non-blockchain companies making cryptocoins for the sole purpose of raising capital to spend on entirely orthogonal concerns?

HugoDaniel 9y ago
I am also not sure, given the current state of the hype i believe that most companies working on products that depend on network effect might at least be considering making their own tokens. Away from the hype there is also the tax problem (the elephant in the room in most cryptocurrency/ICO articles). The country where the company is based and how it implements rules to tax and control such money might influence this at lot. A company is arguably starting with the wrong foot by thinking that it can get away from taxation with such money. But besides money isn't a lot of the startup scene also about disruption ? edited: typo and final question
- claytonjy 9y ago
  So the notion that any non-crypto company is considering an ICO in lieu of an IPO is pure speculation?
acchow 9y ago
US regulations would not allow this.

donkeyd 9y ago

IMHO, ICOs seem to have much less due dilligence going on than IPOs and prey on the uninformed that hope to invest in the next Bitcoin. If anything they're even more of a confirmation that money is invested in products without any real perspective. And for an example of a startup that didn't survive, take Pebble, $15m in VC funding, ended up being sold for $23m. Not sure though how much of that actually went back to the VC. And this was a startup that had a paying customer base, active development community and a product in many big-chain stores.

sharemywin 9y ago
How much ICO money is actually from Bitcoins and Ethereums price inflation. If you had 10 bitcoin 2 years ago(about $2800) what do you do with it? if you put it in Ethereum you would have about 560,000 usd today. why not put it in some projects that have understandable use cases.
- donkeyd 9y ago
  True, was thinking about this last week, if these companies were to try and cash out, BTC would have a flash crash.