Summer fundraising is a dead end — investors are checked out, and momentum is impossible. Use this quiet time to get investor-ready so you can hit the ground running in September before the window slams shut again in December.

The IPO market is finally showing signs of life — but most venture-backed startups are going public at lower valuations than their last private rounds. For early-stage founders, this is a reality check: hype is out, fundamentals are back.

Silicon Valley is facing a reckoning as over 1,200 “unicorns” sit on inflated valuations with no path to exit. Are we finally waking up from the startup fantasy—or just entering the zombie era?