Bill Gurley Goldman Sachs conference – Business Insider.

Subsidizing their way into the market is “going to hurt,”…

“Pay attention. These companies aren’t going through a proper audit process. … We’re drifting from high-margin businesses to ever-increasing low-margin businesses in terms of what we’re saying are unicorns. Be careful. I don’t think it’s sustainable if you extrapolate that way.”

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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last fall, Gurley said that burn rate is the highest it’s been since 1999, and that startups are taking on an “unprecedented” level of risk because it’s easy for startups to raise money. Warning of a tech bubble mirroring that of the late 90s, he also says people are happily working at startups that may be losing millions of dollars a year because the industry is very optimistic.

..many of today’s entrepreneurs weren’t around for the last tech bubble. “They have no muscle memory whatsoever,” he said. “If the environment were to change dramatically, the types of gymnastics that it would require companies to readjust their spend is massive. So I worry about it constantly.”

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