It certainly feels much more orderly. A number of funds were competing to be in on the "next big thing" and drove some pretty spectacular valuations, but they had to believe themselves these were reasonable valuations. And now, after some IPO experiences, it seems they are coming back down to earth and being more pessimistic about valuations.

The dot com crash was a bit different, people were using money raised by the sale of stock as working capital (the day to day money to fund operations) and when a few companies went "poof" those companies found not only could they not sell shares to the public, they couldn't sell them to private investors either. And without being actually cash flow positive they had to cease to exist, and after a couple of those well everyone was running for the door at that point, regardless of quality. A lot of companies simply ran out of cash to fund operations, and while they shrank to try to intercept their burn at a point where they were profitable, many didn't make it, and many were bought by other companies taking advantage of the overly depressed prices. Very much like the foreclosure market on homes.

So I think what this means is that you aren't going to be able to get some hedge fund or mutual fund to lead your funding round with a huge valuation. Instead everyone will want to "participate but not lead." That is the phrase that every CEO hates, it means "we don't believe your valuation, and you have to convince someone, other than you, that you're worth this or we won't invest any more." So it means that source of funding is now "much harder".

And because of that companies that are running short on cash have only three choices, debt, cut costs, or ask the public markets for money.

The debt financing market is full of sharks, they may already believe you are dead and still loan you money because the terms gets them paid first. And if they have a big enough piece, they wield way more power than the rest of the board of directors because they can put you out of business by calling your loan. That is why it is the last "all in" kind of bet you ever make as an entrepreneur.

Cutting costs is the only thing you are really 100% in control of, you can layoff half the staff, sublease your space, and eliminate any sorts of "perks" like meals or bus passes. You probably cut all travel for anyone except the CEO and the CFO (trying to raise more money) and get out of any trade shows or other venues where you have to pay to play (say SXSW for example). You can come out the other side of this stronger as a company but if you've previously had a pretty costly "culture" its going hurt morale big time.

And finally you can throw together your IPO, you can take it on the road, and try to get the public to buy it. Often times you'll do a big reverse split to get the share values up to a reasonable road show price, depending on how dead like you are your investment banker may structure it so that they make their money regardless (rachets, special additional stock dispensation, etc) and you are of course taking on a crap ton of additional filing and paperwork and regulation oversight.

And a number of companies will die. We don't really need three companies disrupting the taxi business, we only need one. We don't need three or four companies in the casual hospitality space, you really only need one, maybe two. Shopping delivery? A half of one perhaps. Things that are companies and look more like a feature? Well the become features of the company that acquires them. Did you add real value? Did you make something someone really wants? Is it really a market and not a fad? Great you survive. Was it just a gimmick? Or a cute idea that everyone tried once? Well you die. Well all learn something and the world turns around. And if you thought something should have survived and yet it died, then you can look at its life and what it tried and see where the world thought differently than you did. Was it market reach? Operational efficiency? Too many people trying to grab a piece? All great things we learn by trying to build companies that succeed and ones that die.