Bubble talk is all talk, but the President of Y Combinator, the prestigious startup accelerator/seed fund, means business. Sam Altman is putting his money, or a chunk of it, right where the rest of his money is: in, or in this case on, the tech market. In a blog post yesterday, Altman said he'll bet any venture capitalist $100,000 that there is no such bubble, according to his terms, with the loser donating to the charity of the winner's choice. That's some serious "shut up" money.
"I’m tired of reading about investors and journalists claiming there’s a bubble in tech," writes Altman. "I understand that it’s fun to do and easy press, but it’s boring reading. I also understand that it might scare newer investors away and bring down valuations, but there’s got to be a better way to win than that."
So, how is Altman going to convince everyone that tech isn't a gamble, but a sure thing, and that the "arc of innovation" will triumph? By placing a high-profile bet, of course.
Instead of just making statements, here is a bet looking 5 years out. To win, I have to be right on all three propositions.1) The top 6 US companies at http://fortune.com/2015/01/22/the-age-of-unicorns/ (Uber, Palantir, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, and SpaceX) are currently worth just over $100B. I am leaving out Snapchat because I couldn’t get verification of its valuation. Proposition 1: On January 1st, 2020, these companies will be worth at least $200B in aggregate.
2) Stripe, Zenefits, Instacart, Mixpanel, Teespring, Optimizely, Coinbase, Docker, and Weebly are a selection of mid-stage YC companies currently worth less than $9B in aggregate. Proposition 2: On January 1st, 2020, they will be worth at least $27B in aggregate.
3) Proposition 3: The current YC Winter 2015 batch—currently worth something that rounds down to $0—will be worth at least $3B on Jan 1st, 2020
Now, the bet is only open to one person. What do you think this guy is made of? And, knowing Y Combinator's perfect record of success, nobody better accept it. "[I]t is not clear to me anyone who wants to take the other side should be investing in startups," he writes. Yeah, what kind of a troll would even take the bait?
Now, the fine print:
Acquisitions at any point between now and the decision date are counted as their acquisition value. Private companies are valued as of their last round that sold stock with at most a 1x liquidation preference or last secondary transaction of at least $100MM of stock. Public companies are valued by their market capitalization.There will be downward pressure on valuations as interest rates rise. But I think it will be less than the upward pressure of the phenomenal innovation and earning power of these businesses.
No, it's not going to be a steady climb to 2020. In fact, as Altman writes, "Of course, there could be a macro collapse in 2018 or 2019, which wouldn’t have time to recover by 2020. I think that’s the most likely way for me to lose." Sure, a MACRO COLLAPSE is possible, but the bubble popping? As if.
Previously: Uber Investor: The Bay Area Bubble Will Pop This Year, And More Than Tech Will Suffer