If you want to know the health of an ecosystem, look at the health of the pilot fish, and not at the whales.
The indications of latent rot or the incursions of new competitors and of asymmetric solutions can be masked by the sheer scale of an established business.
The pilot fish are the leading indicators.
Whales can easily coast on revenues and their customer bases and by squeezing their ecosystems and their partners for a decade or more, even with their businesses and business models rotting away underneath them.
If the startups in SV are getting squeezed, then SV has something to worry about.
The indications of latent rot or the incursions of new competitors and of asymmetric solutions can be masked by the sheer scale of an established business.
The pilot fish are the leading indicators.
Whales can easily coast on revenues and their customer bases and by squeezing their ecosystems and their partners for a decade or more, even with their businesses and business models rotting away underneath them.
If the startups in SV are getting squeezed, then SV has something to worry about.