Staring down the barrel of a recession, venture capitalists are in startup population control. At this point, it's not about saving the startups — it's about who can last on the other side of an economic downturn.
Subsisting on 12- to-18-month funding rounds, startups at the end of their runway are meeting with investors, and await waning prospects. Investors will have to determine if they have stakes in the next Facebook, or something unworthy of the risk. VCs are more risk-averse; by March 29, venture capital funding dropped by 22.5%, compared to the week prior, according to GlobalData.
The runway, or dead space, between VC financing could determine a startup's ability to weather a recession — that, or an offering industry can't resist buying.
