In the midst of a turbulent 2022, Sequoia VC firm released a paper warning their portfolio companies they going to have to hustle and work for real instead of keeping getting VC funding. I was going to say something about Sequoia but realized one of the people listed in the Sequoia paper was someone I worked directly under back in the day, he taught me a lot hands-on and was a good mentor – I love how these phony name-dropping clown Black folks posing around this tech industry don’t realize who knows who in this game. Ain’t no way a brotha like me been around this long and I don’t have history – these cornball Black in tech talkers are some posers, for real.

The Sequoia papers caused a stir because there is a spate of VC firms informing their portfolio startups that the funding is drying up and they need to produce real numbers if they expect to survive by the end of the year. If not, then they are going to be put out of business. Elon Musk tweeted that if they don’t have fundamental profits within 8 months, put them out of their misery. See, a lot of fake-it-til-you-make-it folks depended on getting funding more than focusing on fundamentals for their business model and viability to stand on its own as a real business that delivers real value.

The whole Black in tech clowns out there, posing, talking about themselves, and making up made-up rules about how you move in the tech sector – they just been slapped down by the VC industry. The problem is Black in tech folks betted on getting money by being a token sellout to White Privilege then want to brag they got funding and they have a fake valuation number like $100 million or more. The Sequoia papers said those days are over and there are new rules because of the new environment we are in.

Let’s talk about some aspects of the Sequoia papers.

Money is Getting More Expensive

One thing not mentioned that is obvious – there is no such thing as free money. All money costs money due to interest rates and inflation and other factors. Venture Capital firms do not have free money to give to startups, they have interest rates on the money they get and inflation/deflation impacts the value of the money they are holding. So when someone tells you they have “valuations” that were at a certain point of time, when inflation and interest rise, that “valuation” number will decrease significantly.

Also, the money does not have as much reach – it going to be hard to get computing power due to lockdowns and disruption in the global supply chain including computer chips. So what Sequoia is expressing is that money is not going to be around during this current global situation we are in now. So that means these cornball Black in tech folks going to need a better plan than “get the bag” in this environment.

Growth at Any Cost is Out of Favor

Investors do not care about growth at any cost where we see clickbait content firms like Blavity trying to amass followers and subscribers to say that’s their growth strategy, writing dumb articles to get more audience numbers to brag about. Growth is also hiring more employees just to brag about a headcount. In other words, the numbers games that you see a lot of these cornball Black in tech like to play about how many users they have looking at or following their bullcrap does not matter anymore in the new paradigm.

The market wants profitable companies from day one and has a real growth trajectory through true value creation. The "fund a good idea" is over and I remember during the 2008 recession the VCs were saying the same thing – no more Web 2.0 startups, they are only funding firms with at least $5 million in revenue and are profitable. Now we are approaching another recession, we are looking at investors who only focus on solid business ideas. What we are seeing is VCs chasing cheap Japanese yen to invest and pouring money into Asian markets as well, leaving the joke Black in tech brothas and sistas on the side of the road.

Only Those Who Can Pivot and Change Will Survive

The VC industry is going to quickly defund and get rid of startups from their portfolio if those startups cannot adapt to the changing landscape. That has always been the case in the technology industry – adapt or die. However, we see how Black tech startups operate always on just one gimmick or one-trick pony hustle were the dumbest one I remember was an egg-headed Black attention-seeking clown who was selling some razor subscriptions called Bevel, that was some dumb shit right there and you know that guy was nothing but a damn token to the White Privilege system trying to prop up a person of color. Notice that token sellout goofball after all these years has not done any serious pivot or adaption either.

The problem with these Black cornball clowns in tech is they never focused on adaptive principles like agile, DevOps, and continuous improvement because if they did, they would be awesome in a couple of months with momentum. But all you see and read about is fake showmanship headlines from them, not any real adaptive innovation to propel them from truly one level to the next level. These cornball Blacks in tech are chasing followers and clicks and likes when they announce something, that’s how you can see right through all of them. Remember, just give them a few days and a few weeks – if all they talking about is the status quo, you already know that Black in tech is a lamer.

Real Hustlers and Go-Getters Have Nothing to Worry About

The Sequoia papers mark a new era where these fake-it-till-you-make-it characters don’t have any runway. The VC firms are going to tell them to conserve cash and fire unnecessary people. The VC firms are going to tell them to pivot and focus on profits or get cut off. Their days of smiling and talking about “valuations” are over and I believe the “number games” are over and will never come back.

Let me tell you something about me and my operation – don’t need money from VCs because our team got money and we got enough money to make the moves we need to make. Our business model is global, creates value and our profit margins are very good. And I don’t need to read any Sequoia paper because we operate directly with our customers and partners who are financially sound and solid. That’s because we always stuck to fundamentals of delivery value, having a true roadmap of growth and scale. Because we were going the SPAC route where we have to deliver real numbers in order to be taken seriously by SPAC firms.

The funny part is these joker Black in tech thought they were going to run on seeking funding via validation and acceptance. Most of these Black in tech clowns did not have a serious customer base but bragged like they making moves. There is a big giveaway that I can tell they were posers - do you want to know what it was? It was very easy and let me explain the industry and game to you.

There is only one reason you mention you receive funding and have “valuation” – there is only one reason. That one reason is to attract talent to join your firm, and attract executives to leave their current station, and join you because they know you received funding to pay their salaries. This is the only reason you advertise you received funding and have a valuation number to sell stock options to the talent that you wanted to attract and recruit.

Real talent and executives ain’t interested in working for some Black in tech firm where they see the founder as a self-bragging clown with no resume or experience, just a damn token. So why then, were these Black in tech clowns talking up receiving funding and having valuations, huh?  It’s an easy answer – these Black clowns were trying to impress folks in the Black community they achieved something or they arrived and act like they were better or more accomplished than other Black folks. That’s the only reason you see these clowns talking about getting funding because they were not trying to attract global class talent to compel that talent to quit their job in Europe and move to America and join their team, trust me.

There is a second factor and this should be obvious – when you are real in this tech game, you know where the real Black talent is at. The real Black is up in China, up in Japan, up in Dubai, up in Ireland, up in Spain, up in Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia handling real work and getting paid to do real work. They not sitting here in America talking a bunch of Black-orientated pseudo-tech nonsense on a comment board somewhere.  So if I want to talk to Black tech talent or deal with Black tech talent worth talking to, I know they don’t hang out in these mediocre Black tech groups; I just book an international trip with the Venture X card and go visit where I know they are at.

The main takeaway here is Black folks should have always been grounded in fundamentals and creating value for their customer to grow and scale. All this Sideshow Bob shit about getting VC funding, having valuations, having writeups, having Black tech conferences and all that other bullshit was folks self-distracting themselves and taking their eyes off the prize. All these brothas and sistas had to do was create a product/service, sell it to their customers, and make money. But they over there doing post-paid third-party stuff like relying on ad revenue on someone else platform and other slow money schemes.  They chose to be tokens, chose to be sellouts, chose to be a cornball, and now they lost and will keep losing.

The funding money dried up, new money moved to cheap markets like Asia, and no one funding to achieve valuations anymore – all of that is gone forever and Silicon Valley made that point known. All you butt-licking Black in tech clowns better find a new angle - I don’t know, how about believing in yourself for a change?

So yeah, I guess it's game over.