[jksmith]

Absolutely. My deal was going along pretty well until all this crap made the investors look like a herd of spooked wildebeests.

My deal includes a mix of startup and acquisition (with cash flow). The M&A investors I've worked with are hardly vision-oriented, and their schemes are just variations on the house-flipping theme. So guts and vision are just not part of their makeup or mission. Their latest analogy is the ship dropping anchor and waiting for the fog to pass, but this sounds more to me like they think they're in quicksand and just don't want to move for fear of sinking more.

There will be a "Next Big Thing," but this current crop of investors (if exemplified by who I've worked with) will not be a part of it.