Thanks Sam. I love your posts! I think the rise in startup valuations, even at the early stage, while a bit frothy (and definitely more so in the bay area) is

Thanks Sam. I love your posts! I think the rise in startup valuations, even at the early stage, while a bit frothy (and definitely more so in the bay area) is driven by some structural changes (i.e., the leverage allowed by the new tools which make development cheaper/faster) and access to much bigger markets (mobile, anyone?). "Hot girls" at the bar looking for a job are probably doing so because tech is one of the few non-sucky sectors for young people. Founders investing their capital in other startups doesn't strike me as so weird, given how Angel List and Funders Club, etc. are making it ridiculously easy to put a bit of money to work. Founders with disposable income used to invest in public equities and bonds if they wanted to. Now, startups. There are trillions of dollars still sitting on the sidelines chasing growth. Not even a tiny fraction of that has been deployed to VC (mostly because the returns, in aggregate, are still pretty bad). Should that happen, I might begin to be a little apprehensive.