Don’t panic, startups: Advice from veteran VCs who weathered the dot-com bust

It has been an erratic week for the global markets, but should startups be concerned?

Depends who you ask.

“Worrying about the stock market at any moment in time is not a good use of an entrepreneur’s time,” Bryan Stolle, a general partner at the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures, tells Quartz.

But Arvind Gupta of SOSVentures believes it’s time for startups to take a cold, hard look at their financials—just in case. “If the stock market stays down—which is a big if—I think you’ll see many of these unicorns not make it to IPO and die ugly, public, messy deaths.”

Well, that’s reassuring.

The truth is no one really knows what to expect. But since many of today’s venture capitalists weathered the first dot-com boom and bust, they offered up some wise words for current entrepreneurs. Sometimes the investors are in full alignment, and sometimes they differ fundamentally—so as with all advice, take from it what you will.

Read the full post here.