The startup business moves in cycles, and what goes up will eventually come down. We’re in summer. Summer will end. When, how much, and why – I don’t know. But the signs of winter are all around us: persistently high unemployment, market shocks, ill-timed austerity measures. For a while, startupland can stay insulated from these broader forces, but not indefinitely. The LP’s that fund booms are, after all, pension, municipal, and sovereign wealth funds. Consumers need disposable income to invest in the latest products, as do the companies who serve them and advertisers who reach them.

— Eric Ries.