The atmosphere of sheer panic among VCs these days is disconcerting. If I was an LP, I would be sitting on my hands right now. Up and down the capital stack, people have lost their wits, if not their minds.

How do I know? Two things: (1) speed and (2) strategy drift.

(1) Speed. Things are moving so insanely fast there is literally no way anyone is doing any due diligence or actual research at all. No one is asking hard questions. Since "everything goes up and only up" better go faster.

(2) Strategy drift. No one (large or small, late or early) is sticking to their stated strategy. Everyone is in everyone else's lane, operating outside their zones of competence. Why? Because no one has confidence in their own strategy - and everyone else is in their lane too...

VCs which are supposed to be capital allocators have become capital shovellers, and speed is the only measure of success. As long as everything is getting marked up, there is no reason not to speed up. It just brings the mark-ups closer.

Everyone is afraid to say no to anything - regardless of quality and regardless of strategy fit.

To be clear: many of these investments will be brilliant and market opportunities are bigger than ever....but as an asset class, we are at a dangerous place. Occasional $10B+ outcomes are being used to justify all sorts of irrational behavior.