Tech crash affects VC junkets, fashion choices

At this year’s head-to-head meeting in Los Angeles, there were signs that, as Bob Dylan once sang, the times must indeed be changing.

Why is it important?The whipsaw market and economic uncertainty are putting a lot of pressure on tech investment — and it’s affecting the freewheeling zeitgeist of venture capital.

1. Technology Bubble Hour: One late VC modestly mentioned that he knew the tech sector was about to rebound even before the pandemic officially began.

His clue: The number of tech executives and investors paying tens of thousands of dollars to play in the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am charity golf tournament in February 2020. Among participants that year (actually signed up months ago)

• Bond Capital’s Mary Meeker, Coates Thomas and Philippe Lafont, Qualtrix’s Ryan Smith, Sophie Anthony Noto, Silver Lake Partners’ Egon Durban, Palo Alto Networks’ Nikesh Arora, Workday’s Aneel Busri and many others.

2. VC Fashion: Move over Patagonia (and Arctic)—currently the new sports jacket brand of choice for VCs is Cotopaxi, a Salt Lake City-based company founded in 2014.

Game Mode: Several VCs at the conference sported multicolored, cotopaxi jackets emblazoned with their companies’ logos.

My thought bubble; Cotopaxi jackets look exactly what the era calls for. They’re more affordable than their predecessors, and inject a bit of fun into a bleak market.