There used to be at least some clear logic behind startup valuation. You d take: hours rate MVP cost. That gave you a rough valuation floor. Not perfect. But it was an anchor. That anchor is now gone. AI made MVPs almost free. ~$300. Two weeks. One person. And if a product costs almost nothing to build what is valuation based on now? The answer is uncomfortable: your product itself is no longer inherently valuable. Investors no longer look at: how long you ve been building how many developers you have how much money you ve invested into the product Because none of that proves anything anymore. Now there s only one question: who is paying? If no one is then in their eyes, your startup is worth roughly what your MVP cost. Here s what actually changed: why pre-seed is now about MRR, not MVP how investor requirements shifted why solo founders suddenly became viable and where moat actually lives when your product can be cloned in two weeks Full breakdown here
https://substack.com/home/post/p... And I have a qustion to you: Did AI kill innovative startups and turn venture into short-term revenue games? What do you think?
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Last year in Unicorns Journal we published an interview with Sergey Bakaev, where we unpacked first-time fundraising strategy expectations vs reality, common mistakes, and what founders often underestimate when raising capital for the first time.
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