The two reasons cited why there won't be a pop:<p>"1. Startups today are generating real revenues off of a massive customer base (thanks to mobile and broadband saturation).<p>2. Startups with money in the bank or even — gasp! — profits, don’t go out of business! Founders are aware of this and are watching the deflation I mention above and, largely, taking measures to control their burn."<p>Both are laughable.<p>1. No, startups today can fund the ongoing chasing of customer counts through lavish spending of investors' money.<p>Earlier in the article a bullet point called out so darlings (Dropbox and Evernote IIRC) as facing an uncertain future in the face of an easily duplicated business model.<p>These 'massive' customer bases are as fickle or more fickle than in the past. Earlier today I read: 'no one under 19 uses Twitter.'<p>What was there massive customer base, again...?<p>2. Startups with profits go out of business when those profits evaporate because the flow of free investment money dries up for _their customers._<p>That's the thing I'm watching for in the immanent pop: the cascading crisis as each successive tier whose business models are predicated on the one before it, all falling like dominoes.<p>It doesn't matter how nimble you are, or how well managed, or ultimately, how well capitalized, if you business is selling to others in the same sector.<p>Failure goes viral, too.<p>8/10 for teeth-gritted sweaty-browed optimism, however.