Fred Wilson’s annual predictions for the new year are always great, whether on-point or not. Particular attention needs to be made to #10 in my eyes:
“Markdown mania will hit the venture capital sector as VC firms follow Fidelity’s lead and start aggressively taking down the valuations in their portfolios. Crunchbase will start capturing this valuation data and will become a de-facto “yahoo finance” for the startup sector. Employees will realize their options are underwater and will start leaving tech startups in droves.”
While I think employees “leaving in droves” is likely a fun but gross exaggeration, I’m still very concerned about the potential loss in valuation of employee equity, either via markdowns or an impact from an acquisition below “market value” (as we saw in the article I previously posted....).










