[mathattack]

My 2 cents... In 2008 and 2009, when so many of my most talented friends were unemployed for the only time in their career, I observed, "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to start a company. Better to be starting a firm when talent is plentiful and money is scarce than the other way around."

So what to do now that it's the other way around? (Independent of calling it a bubble, money is relatively more plentiful than talent than any time in the past 15 years)

An entrepreneur should take the money and use it to build talent. What's this mean? Be selective about money, get it from investors with as long a time horizon as possible, and make sure that it's enough to last a while. Then hire people with great potential who may be overlooked by the market. Use the money to grow them as they grow the company, and create an environment where they might want to stay.

If you're not that patient, just take the high valuations and use it to buy 1 or 2 superstars whose equity is underwater at Google.

[sanderjd]

Great insight. I'm frustrated in general by the amount of bellyaching about the difficulty of finding talent in conjunction with the apparent unwillingness to invest in developing it. If there's a time for cash-rich, talent-poor companies to invest in training, now is it.

[j-conn]

Thanks for this.

get it from investors with as long a time horizon as possible Can you elaborate on how to evaluate this? I'd imagine you could just ask them if you already have a relationship, otherwise by looking at the age of their fund?

[mathattack]

You hit the first two suggestions - age of fund is a big clue, and just asking them. Reputation of the firm matters a lot too.

If you're up front about your expected burn rate and the amount of funding you're asking for, that will help select the right group too. (You can't ask for 10 years of funding, but you can go for more than the year that many settle for)