4 ms·

To be honest, I don't know anything at all about monetary policy. I've said before that valuations are high right now, but I don't know what if any effect mone

• phillmv 13y ago
  Actually, you're in a rather unique position. If you don't mind, what do you think drives valuation inflation? What's the competitive pressure for VCs/funders to invest at higher valuations?
• 7Figures2Commas 13y ago
  I suppose you could argue that monetary policy isn't as big a consideration for YC as it is for other funds. YC effectively capitalizes new companies with tiny amounts of money, and it does so across a relatively large number of companies. If you're not involved in follow-on rounds, valuation is less important to you, although you probably wouldn't be happy if the paper value of equity you haven't realized gains on collapsed. Outside of this, it seems to me that YC's next biggest risk is that the landscape changes, you cannot put enough of your capital to use effectively/efficiently and more attractive risk-adjusted returns become available elsewhere. But most angels and VC firms investing larger sums in fewer deals, and competing harder to get into those deals, have much greater risk. The intriguing/disturbing thing is that as far as I can see, those investors seem to be completely ignoring how the injection of trillions of dollars into the financial system has impacted the asset class they're investing in. I can't name any other asset class in which professionals haven't been publicly discussing this topic for some time.