美国国家公共电台 NPR--Investors and start-ups face hard choices during rocky economic forecast

Investors¹ and start-ups face hard choices during rocky economic forecast

Transcript²

What happens to the flow of venture capital when the market drops? Investors and start-ups have to recalibrate and make difficult choices when rocky times are ahead.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The market is down, especially for tech stocks. And that changes the calculations for the private equity³ investors known as venture capitalists. As Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma from the Indicator⁴ podcast explain, both investors and startups are facing hard choices.

ADRIAN MA, BYLINE⁵: Before we get to the doom⁶ and gloom, let's revisit some of the high-flying times for tech. Nicole DeTommaso is a senior associate at Harlem Capital. It's a firm that specializes in early-stage funding for startups run by women and people of color.

NICOLE DETOMMASO: Valuations were through the roof. You know, people were getting 30 million valuations off of an idea. And we still wanted to be in with those great founders⁸. You couldn't sit out because, otherwise, you just wouldn't be deploying⁹.

WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Deploying is, basically, spending money. It's what venture capitalists live to do because the sooner those funds go to work helping¹⁰ a company create the next bit of world-changing technology, the sooner they might see a return on that investment.

MA: And as it turns out, VCs have their own investors to answer to. Those investors are called limited partners - or LPs.

WONG: Limited partners are often wealthy individuals or institutions who spread their money around to lots of places, including VC funds. And one reason they're called limited partners is because they don't get involved in picking which startups to invest in.

MA: So to sum it up, startups get their money from venture capital firms, which get their money from limited partners. And so now it is time to follow that same flow of money that we talked about, and follow it in a down market. Nicole says the trouble started with that thing we're all living with now, high inflation.

DETOMMASO: Honestly, it probably started kicking off when inflation rose to 40-year highs. Interest rates hiked. Once those hiked, the equity markets dropped.

WONG: Stock markets tend to fall when interest rates go up. And publicly traded tech companies set the expectations for how much private tech companies should be worth. So as public valuations fall, so do private ones, which means a startup that was maybe once poised¹¹ to be the next Uber or Shopify now just looks like too risky¹² of a bet.

MA: So now you have startup valuations falling, meaning venture capital firms aren't getting the kind of returns on investment that they want.

WONG: And remember, venture capital firms are investing money they got from their limited partners - the people trusting them to make smart bets on startups. Now venture capital firms are returning less money to their LPs.

MA: Right. And when it comes time for venture capital firms to fundraise, their limited partners write smaller checks. And then the VC firms, they have less money to invest. And so they, in turn, write smaller checks to the startups.

WONG: Nicole says the advice she's been hearing is that in this market, startups should have 18 to 24 months of cash on hand because they can't count on being able to fundraise like they used to. For companies that don't have this cushion, it's time to start cutting costs.

DETOMMASO: Unfortunately, sometimes that means you do have to lay off people. But, I think, something that you have to consider as a founder⁷ is if you don't lay off certain people, the whole business might go under, right? And then you're laying off everyone.

WONG: Nicole says her venture capital firm is still actively¹³ investing in startups. And as the pace of deal-making slows down, she expects valuations to be based less on hype and more on a founder's ability to navigate¹⁴ the leaner times ahead.

MA: Adrian Ma.

WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FRITZ KALKBRENNER'S "RIDE")

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

4 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

9 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

12 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

13 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

14 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。