Juggling Dynamite

The same ‘easy money’ policies that enabled excessive spending and mal-investment in real estate fuelled a boom and bust now unfolding in the venture capital and start-up space, as well. This has broader implications for asset prices, lenders, investment, jobs and the economy at large. See, Start-up failures rise 60% as founders face hangover from the boom years:

In the boom years, VCs would encourage founders to take larger and larger investments, inflating valuations, according to Healy Jones, vice-president at Kruze Consulting, an accountant to hundreds of venture-backed start-ups. It was a “crazy fundraising environment” in which “VC and founder incentives did not always align”, he said.

Founders are now facing the hangover. The jump in bankruptcies is due to the fact that “an abnormally high number of companies raised an abnormally large amount of money during 2021-2022”, said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a recent note to clients.

VC-backed companies employed 4mn people in the US, Morgan Stanley said, creating “spillover risks to the rest of the economy” should the rise in bankruptcies fail to slow.

Over the last year, more than 200 real estate developments in Canada became insolvent. Andrew Chang explains why, at a time of high demand for housing, a growing number of projects are falling through. Here is a direct video link.

Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz speaks to Peter Rawlinson, chief executive officer, chief technology officer and member of the board of directors at Lucid Motors Inc., where he is responsible for the company’s strategy and execution, as well as the creation and delivery of all Lucid products. Before Lucid, Peter was vice president of vehicle engineering at Tesla Inc. and chief engineer of the Model S. Before joining Tesla in February 2009, he led vehicle engineering at Corus Automotive. He was previously chief engineer of advanced engineering at Lotus Cars Ltd. and principal engineer at Jaguar Cars Inc. Here is a direct audio link.