Karl Alomar
Contributor
After managing and exiting two startups over a 20-year career, Karl is now M13’s managing partner. Previously as DigitalOcean’s COO, Karl built the business from first product to over 500 employees and $250M ARR over six years and prepared it for its IPO.
These are challenging times, but this is not the first time I have heard that.
This year brought the first signs of skepticism and pressure on venture. In the past decade, we lived through an unprecedented run of optimism and climbing valuations, and the gut check we’re seeing now has been long in coming.
I have experienced two major financial disruptions in my career: the bubble burst in 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008. I ran a technology startup and a fintech startup through these times, respectively, and as such I have experienced the impact that such events can have.
The key difference between 2022 and previous downturns is that this contraction was anticipated for a long time, whereas the previous downturns were far more sudden. Markets have …