The year 2021 was a record year for VC fundraising in the US, double 2019 levels and 40 percent higher than 2020. Funds are being deployed faster than ever before. Rounds are being closed at record speed. And startups are being valued higher than ever. 

Two or three unicorns sprung per working day in 2021, with the global tally reaching 1,000 unicorns. “It is exhausting,” admits Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures. “The VC business has turned into a sprint. And you can’t sprint forever.”

Sebastian Mallaby, author of an excellent new book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, joins us to discuss the Silicon Valley Age and determine if we’ve reached the end of the cycle. What can history teach us about what will happen next?