How I read it is, during a good economy money will be more plentiful and investors will be more willing to invest in your startup. If you know it's easy to get

How I read it is, during a good economy money will be more plentiful and investors will be more willing to invest in your startup. If you know it's easy to get investor dollars and every subsequent round of funding is almost guaranteed, you have the luxury of not being immediately profitable. It's much easier to peruse a business plan where you peruse growth and larger long term profitability at the expense of short term profitability when the economy is good because you are constantly getting investor funds and it's easier to sell new investors on your idea. In a bad economy you don't have that luxury. Not only is there not as much cash to go around, investors are pickier with the cash that they do hand out. This means you can no longer pursue a business plan that sacrifices profitability for growth, you have to prioritize making money. Assuming your business succeeds, it will then be better prepared to get investor cash when the economy improves and can theoretically weather future financial storms better. I realize this is a very idyllic way of looking at it and there are a million other variables that come into play, but I think pg is definitely looking at it in idyllic terms in his piece.