> Recur, an NFT startup once valued at more than $300 million, decided to shut down recently. And a tiny edtech Web3 startup called 101 also called it quits.
NFTs and Web3 were the biggest bubbles of the pandemic boom, obviously they’re popping. Did these companies ever expect to turn a profit?
This article would be easier to believe if their two examples weren't laughable Web3/Crypto products. It's also a bit change they're comparing 2016 and 2020 values - funding dropping to 2020 levels doesn't really seem like major cause for alarm, to me.
> Participation has dropped from more than 550 deals and a quarterly peak of nearly $50 billion in 2021 to fewer than 200 deals and a quarterly peak of around $15 billion in 2023, Stanford wrote.
> As IVP's Tom Loverro so presciently pointed out back in January: Late 2023 and 2024 for startups will make the 2008 financial crisis "look quaint for startups."
I really hope that’s an exaggeration, but the funding trends do not look good.
The funding environment is fantastic still if you’re building a product and company that provides real people, real value. Creating a poor knockoff of pre-existing financial assets and marketing it as “revolutionary” is not creating real value for real people.
The article provides no historical context. Startups are risky and fail all the time. Are more startups than normal failing? How many startups can cut back and survive without more funding?
> Recur, an NFT startup once valued at more than $300 million, decided to shut down recently. And a tiny edtech Web3 startup called 101 also called it quits.
NFTs and Web3 were the biggest bubbles of the pandemic boom, obviously they’re popping. Did these companies ever expect to turn a profit?