The ongoing market correction and the cratering of several leading crypto tokens are erasing wealth so quickly, you can almost hear it.
Companies in other industries are on a hiring spree, but startups like Robinhood, Better.com and Peloton are laying off thousands as FAANG companies slow down their recruiting and look for places to save money.
For many tech workers, this is the first time they’ve experienced real uncertainty. Investors are affluent, and founders will weather this storm just fine, but in downturns like these, rank-and-file employees are the first to feel any pain.
So, if your face doesn’t appear on the team slide in your startup’s pitch deck, this would be a good time to cancel your upcoming vacation. And maybe one of your subscription boxes.
In this environment, every entrepreneur should be fluent with their key metrics. If you can’t recall exactly how much runway you have left by the time you finish reading this sentence, I’m a little worried for you.
For her latest TC+ column, angel investor Marjorie Radlo-Zandi addresses a related question on every founder’s mind: What is my current valuation?
For many startups, finding that figure requires more art than science, since pre-revenue companies are still gathering data and fine-tuning their products.
“Many traditional valuation methods, such as discounted cash flow, aren’t as useful for valuing early-stage startups,” she writes. “This means investors have to gauge other factors that aren’t so easily measured.”
There’s no antidote for uncertainty, but it can be mitigated: dive into your data, activate your personal network, and look for ways to support your co-workers.
Thanks very much for reading TechCrunch+.
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist
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