Hundreds of Start Ups Will Fail In the Next 2 Years. Here Is Why :
“Throughout history we witness continual cycles of rising and falling levels of the irrational. The great golden age of Pericles, with its philosophers and its first stirrings of the scientific spirit, was followed by an age of superstition, cults, and intolerance. This same phenomenon happened after the Italian Renaissance. That this cycle is bound to recur again and again is part of human nature.” ― Robert Greene
I would argue that for the past 200 years we have been going through a period who will later be considered by historians "The Age Of Irrationality".
In such a miniscule amount of time we've gone from farming to building factories, from entrepreneurs to influencers and bloggers.
Imagine you met a man from 1870 and you told them 16 year olds would be making millions from a machine that connects them to the whole entire world in milliseconds.
Historical/Dialectical Materialism, is a term that emerged from the theories of Engels and Marx. In simply terms, it says that for every drasis/thesis there is an antidrasis/antithesis and through change, the final product, synthesis is produced.
Synthesis is balance. We have long forgotten that word. We chose to forget that an antithesis will always follow the thesis.
A prime example of irrationality in our culture is the glorification of start ups. When all the facts point North, we take the road to South. Logic goes out the window and start ups like WeWork raise millions (IF NOT BILLIONS) of dollars even though they offer nothing new.
How can a business run for years on years, raise money and not generate PROFIT.
We humans like to think we have progressed. We no longer fall victims to "fast money" and cultish leaders. But we do.
We trust "geniuses" running on psychedelics with our money.
These people are playing chess. This is " The South Sea Bubble" all over again.
Even though a small percentage of start ups offer true value to society and are worth every penny invested on them, others are nothing but glorified horse shit.
Would you buy a ship that was not built but the "owner" claimed it is the fastest ship ever built ? No. You would first want proof. What if you paid the person that had the idea millions of dollars and after 5 years, a boat was all they have made ?
So why do venture capital investment companies with countless of analysts "fall victim" to this. Either they are expecting the company to go public and people to run to buy stock because guess what ? "Microinvestors"(you, me and your aunt) follow the motions of "Macroinvestors" (wall street boys, private equity firms, investors who have reached celebrity status) or they themselves act irrationally.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this women in tech, finance or business in general. Do you agree with me that the start up bubble is finally bursting or is there something else (besides the silent recession) going on?
