The flipside of this is that SF's high burn rate kills many startups that otherwise would have been $100M companies. In particular, startups that are margin-sen

The flipside of this is that SF's high burn rate kills many startups that otherwise would have been $100M companies. In particular, startups that are margin-sensitive. I totally agree that you often can't choose if you're a $100M or a $1B startup, but if you're a founder, I think it often makes a lot more sense to optimize for the $100M scenario, given that it's more likely. The caveat is the founder who's already made f-u money, and whose true goal is to shoot for the moon.