I had a few lectures with Professor Ilya Strebulaev from Stanford GSB back in 2016. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/ilya-strebulaev https

I had a few lectures with Professor Ilya Strebulaev from Stanford GSB back in 2016. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/ilya-strebulaev https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/ilya-s... He wrote a few articles. 1)How much VC drives the US economy(October,2015): https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-much-does-venture-capital-drive-us-economy https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-much-does-venture-... 2)Unicorns are overvalued(May,2017): https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/silicon-valleys-unicorns-are-overvalued https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/silicon-valleys-unicor... In class in 2016 Ilya Strebulaev(who has arguably the best VC dataset in the world) stated that 92% of VCs surveyed believed unicorns were overalued and a correction was likely. He also told our class a very memorable and self effacing story of how he placed a bet with a colleague for a bottle of nice wine on the future date of bankruptcy of GM. In order to win the bet, the GM bankruptcy had to occur prior to X date. GM’s bankruptcy was date X+1, thus losing the bet. A lesson on timing. Even when you’re “right”, you can be wrong. Perhaps a Saudi assassination “string” pulled too hard for too long could see a cascading effect. It’s inevitable we will see a correction in valuations. But I also think it’s pointless to fear it. That time is better spent building a sustainable business on a fair valuation with more challenging access to capital. YC’s suggestion for YC Batch(as well as all other) startups to be careful with not accepting money and scaling a startup at excessive valuation sounds like a solid one in this climate and the likely future.