re: Startup mass extinction: E-scooter company Bird (fastest to reach $1B val) now worth $7M

Couple of points:

1. The 1980's with much higher interest rates was a very active decade for VC. Blaming this just on interest is lazy.

2. 90% of VC-backed startups fail. It's the top 1% that they make all their returns on. They have been trying for decades to raise the success percentage, but have barely budged it - see Techstars, Y Combinator, The Capital Factory, etc.

3. A lot of those VCs exited before the companies crashed with nice piles of cash.

4. Don't underestimate Go Woke, Go Broke. I can tell you without doubt from firsthand experience that it was a factor in Bird, Lime and several others. Funding female/minority founders who either weren't up to it or were straight up scammers (looking at you Theranos and WeWork), higher priority on social justice than profits (pretty much all of the bike/scooter rental deals), etc.

5. The SPAC craze created more money chasing deals than there should have been, which resulted in a lot of bad deals going public.

VC will be back, it's historically outperformed the market and is a pure numbers game - fund enough startups, and you get a unicorn or two. It also differentiates the US from every other country on the planet. No one has a VC culture like we do.