Short video commentary from Precursor Ventures (uploaded April 2, 2025) addressing the problem of inflated unicorn valuations from 2020–2021. The speaker notes many unicorns may not be worth their last-round valuations — some may be worth much less or nothing — and highlights the difficult conversations between VCs and founders whose careers and identities are tied to those marks.
Sometimes I'll explicitly ask people like, hey, I'm not sure we're on a venture scale. Are you open to talking about alternative paths? And I think right now we have in the venture business a bunch of unicorns that were minted in 20 and 20 and 2021, which may or may not ever be worth their last round's valuations. In some cases, those companies aren't worth anything. In some cases, they're probably worth something, but less than they were valued. And like, how do you navigate those conversations? Because, you know, there are VCs whose careers are tied to through those high rounds and those high marks. There are founders whose egos and unfortunately, maybe some cases, even self worth, is tied to those marks. And in many cases, they no longer reflect reality.
