What Startup Founders Need at This Moment: It Starts with a Very Cool Head on Your Shoulders

Fred Destin, founder of London-based Stride.VC, has been in the venture business for more than two decades, and what he sees now in the startup investment world is not surprisingly a substantially tightening economic picture. Startup valuations are falling by 30-50%. Volume of deals getting done are down by 30-50%. “Half of our portfolio’s (business) pipeline is doing ok, the other half is getting obliterated, and it’s true for almost every company,” Destin says. “The good news … startups are kind of designed to perform fairly well in environments of chaos."