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What is it about people with money and October? Remember three years ago almost to the day when Sequoia said investment in start-ups was about to dry up? http

What is it about people with money and October? Remember three years ago almost to the day when Sequoia said investment in start-ups was about to dry up? http://gigaom.com/2008/10/08/sequoia-rings-the-alarm-bell-silicon-valley-in-trouble/ http://gigaom.com/2008/10/08/sequoia-rings-the-alarm-bell-si... luckily founders of Twilio,AirBnB, and Foursquare didn't listen and got started around then.

toyg 15y ago
Well, all things in economy are cyclical, so sooner or later this will really happen. This said, people like Sequoia have agendas, so they might be just trying to hurry up people on the fence in order to drum up some business for them.
- davedx 15y ago
  "all things in economy are cyclical" That's a bold statement - care to back it up? :)
  - toyg 15y ago
    You're fishing for a discussion that will never end :) Let's flip it the other way: which economic elements or actors DON'T go through cycles, in your opinion ? I'm genuinely curious.
    - rudiger 15y ago
      Well, debt doesn't seem to be in a cycle. It just keeps getting bigger! :D
      - iand 15y ago
        Maybe it's just a long cycle. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:US_Federal_Debt.png https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:US_Feder...
    - trotsky 15y ago
      wealth distribution
    - Symmetry 15y ago
      Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down, but the academic consensus is that its a random walk, rather than any sort of predictable cycle.
nir 15y ago
I think it's fair to say 3 months after Oct 2008 investment really did dry up. You'll always find some exceptions, since VCs dont disappear off the earth in a recession, but it is much harder to get financed.
timr 15y ago
AirBnB was around well before the Sequoia letter -- they were around in (at least) 2007. Also, Sequoia wasn't wrong. Venture funding slowed dramatically in 2008, and didn't pick up again until (roughly) 2010. The latest cycle of good times is still quite young.

toyg 15y ago

Well, all things in economy are cyclical, so sooner or later this will really happen. This said, people like Sequoia have agendas, so they might be just trying to hurry up people on the fence in order to drum up some business for them.

davedx 15y ago
"all things in economy are cyclical" That's a bold statement - care to back it up? :)
- toyg 15y ago
  You're fishing for a discussion that will never end :) Let's flip it the other way: which economic elements or actors DON'T go through cycles, in your opinion ? I'm genuinely curious.
  - rudiger 15y ago
    Well, debt doesn't seem to be in a cycle. It just keeps getting bigger! :D
    - iand 15y ago
      Maybe it's just a long cycle. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:US_Federal_Debt.png https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:US_Feder...
  - trotsky 15y ago
    wealth distribution
  - Symmetry 15y ago
    Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down, but the academic consensus is that its a random walk, rather than any sort of predictable cycle.

nir 15y ago

I think it's fair to say 3 months after Oct 2008 investment really did dry up. You'll always find some exceptions, since VCs dont disappear off the earth in a recession, but it is much harder to get financed.

timr 15y ago

AirBnB was around well before the Sequoia letter -- they were around in (at least) 2007. Also, Sequoia wasn't wrong. Venture funding slowed dramatically in 2008, and didn't pick up again until (roughly) 2010. The latest cycle of good times is still quite young.