Hello and welcome back to Bullish, TechCrunch’s first talk show. This week we’re digging into the financial markets, the disconnect between public and private valuations, and, of course, how the venture capital community is reacting to a turbulent marketplace.
Joining us this week is Maha Ibrahim, a venture capitalist at Canaan Partners, an important finance shop that recently locked down its tenth fund. The company has billions of dollars under management.
So, what is going on? Well, those tremors you recently felt were not pre-quakes for the big one, but the global financial system undergoing a series of painful shocks. The theme of the day is uncertainty — it simply isn’t clear if we are on the cusp of a painful correction in asset valuations the planet ’round, or if we are merely staring at a bit of profit-taking after a multi-year bull market.
What is uncontroversial to note is that equities here in the United States are not cheap, various pressures in the Chinese market are worrisome, and European data isn’t thrilling.
Those facts circles back to our little Silicon Valley, because the kids who deploy capital into the next unicorns have to raise the stuff, and if our species becomes poorer on paper en masse, that particular wicket could become glue-enabled.
There is a connection between public markets, and private valuations. That’s to say that if the NASDAQ takes a turn for the dead, the implied valuation decline works trickles down through the private sphere. (At some point we get to stop pointing that out, right?)
How much? How quickly? Should you be scared? Hit play, and let’s sort it through with Maha.
Bullish airs every Wednesday morning at 7 am Pacific, and 10 am Eastern. We’ll see you all soon.