[aaronwhite]

Speaking on the VC side, some the crunch premise is flawed. The crunch is due to a huge explosion of early stage companies (easier than ever to get seeded, less capital than ever needed to get started) w/o a corresponding explosion of A-level capital.

There is no formula for unicorns, I'd dismiss that outright, and even if we found one, every founder would bend their story to adapt superficially, and the forumla would prove useless.

My #1 theory on why people w/ a somewhat logical strategy/thesis fail to raise? Failure to tell a compelling, coherent story about their opportunity, and failure to come across as a compelling "force of nature" founding team.

[wylonis]

i partially agree with your point on an explosion in early stage companies. however, i think part of this explosion in seed stage companies is because companies are now raising 2-3 seed rounds and jumping straight to A rounds which in effect is the old "B round." i think part of this behaviour is driven by investors dis-interest in A rounds so entrepreneurs try to be "seed stage" as long as possible until then can raise 10 million dollar A rounds which is really a b round.