Seed of doubt: venture capital tightens up
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A slump in tech is driving investors to rediscover old ways. Out are the cash-splashing long bets; in are smaller, profitable, strategic firms. Nigeria’s election was pitched as the most transparent ever. It was not. We ask what is likely to happen now. And chilli crisp, a Chinese condiment with a deep history, is a study in how foods become fads.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. |
| 0:07.0 | Today from London I'm your host Jason Palmer. |
| 0:10.3 | Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:19.7 | It was supposed to be the most transparent election ever in Nigeria, but things didn't |
| 0:24.4 | quite go to plan. |
| 0:26.2 | We look at the outcome and why it's likely to be challenged in the courts. |
| 0:31.4 | And in the early days of the pandemic lots of people reached for new and interesting |
| 0:35.7 | condiments to jazz up all those meals at home. |
| 0:39.2 | We examine an old and interesting condiment that caught fire during that time, chili crisp. |
| 0:55.8 | Just up though. |
| 1:04.1 | It's really striking how many young-ish businesses that are now household names got their |
| 1:08.8 | start with venture capital. |
| 1:12.5 | Snap, Uber, WhatsApp, Alibaba, Facebook, Airbnb, the list is enormous and pretty techy. |
| 1:20.0 | Those vast injections of financing for new business ideas have kind of altered what people |
| 1:24.9 | expect from startup companies. |
| 1:27.3 | It wasn't about early profits from the better mouse trap. |
| 1:30.4 | It became cutthroat stuff of grabbing market share and winner takes all cash splashing |
| 1:35.4 | battles. |
| 1:36.6 | The returns they could come down the line after the winner had taken all. |
| 1:41.3 | But times are changing, belts are tightening and some kinds of startups might not find |
| 1:46.3 | the backing they might once have counted on. |
| 1:49.1 | There have been lots of VC funded companies that went bust last year and so it started |
... |
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