The leverage is the difference between valuation at most recent round and what a more boring company performing the same role in the market would have as a publ

The leverage is the difference between valuation at most recent round and what a more boring company performing the same role in the market would have as a public market cap. The difference between those two values represents a gap that has to be closed before you're on steady ground, and the gap widens at a higher-than-normal rate because of the growth expectations of the VC money. Anyway, that's what it looks like to this complete outsider. Companies full of very capable people, pushed to do desperate things, and to do those things quickly. And, like the churn of leveraged Wall Street finance, there are plenty of people who live for the froth of it all.