Katie Benner reported in today’s New York Times that, “Technology stocks are gyrating. Valuations for once-vaunted private companies have been slashed and some start-ups have shut down. Even Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, recently said he was ‘seeing extreme conditions unlike anything we have ever experienced.’
“But in Silicon Valley, ask any start-up entrepreneur about the shifting economic environment and the answer often goes like this:
“‘I haven’t changed anything since this all started,’ said Manav Mital, the chief executive of Instart Logic, which speeds the delivery of computing services to customers.”
Today’s article explained that, “In technology, there is reality, and then there is start-up reality. Even as the tech industry is undergoing a reset in expectations driven by global economic concerns, many start-up executives say their companies are doing just fine. Those layoffs that are starting at small private tech companies? That decline in start-up funding? Maybe some start-ups are feeling it, but not their own.”
Ms. Benner explained that, “Entrepreneurs’ confidence levels remain buoyant even though investors are telling them that the change from go-go-go times to merely go-go will have consequences.
“The message from Rory O’Driscoll, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, that entrepreneurs should be more careful is often ignored.”
The Times added: “For now, start-up entrepreneurs are operating much as they did during the recent boom times.”
