It depends a bit on the stage. It is definitely that competitive for the best growth stage companies, where "best" roughly means "highest growth in a market tha

It depends a bit on the stage. It is definitely that competitive for the best growth stage companies, where "best" roughly means "highest growth in a market that can sustain a venture-level return (which in practice means a $1B+ valuation)." These companies tend to be large enough that they naturally gain access to investors, there's cheap capital everywhere, and there just aren't that many companies in big markets that are on aggressive growth trajectories. Fwiw it also isn't just silicon valley at this point, the funding patterns increasingly hold across much of north america.