Burn Rates

It has been predicted that the current downturn in venture is going to lead to a pile of unicorpses in 2016. We disagree.

With the global economic environment as tumultuous as ever, we picked out some unicorns that may need to keep an eye on their burn rates and balance sheets.

The VC frenzy has created a reality distortion, and the result has been sky high burn rates, unrealistic expectations, and crazy valuations, writes Josh Burwick, managing partner at Sand Hill East Ventures, in a guest contribution.

As part of our 2015 Annual U.S. Venture Industry Report, we reached out to Silicon Valley Bank’s Aaron Gershenberg to ask him about his thoughts on the current VC industry, including his take on valuations and burn rates as well as his predictions for 2015.

As part of our 4Q U.S. Venture Industry Report, we got in touch with Babak Yaghmaie and Matt Bartus, two partners at Cooley. Mr. Yaghmaie heads the firm’s New York Business & Finance Group and Mr. Bartus is a partner in the Cooley Business department, with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco.

The idea of high burn rates rings alarm bells, as there are few things more dangerous to a startup than burning through cash too fast. But what does the data say about burn rates? Let’s take a look.