WestRiver Senior Associate Sean Maier: Cheap Capital and Platform Shifts Spawned 54,000 U.S. Venture-Backed Startups and 532 Unicorns by 2023, Many Overvalued

Sean Maier of WestRiver Group argues that successive technology platform waves plus cheap capital drove a surge in venture-backed U.S. startups and inflated valuations, creating many unicorns with weak fundamentals. He warns that the subsequent capital tightening exposes those weaknesses but expects innovation to continue, favoring startups that focus on product-market fit, unit economics, and durable value.

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