I've been watching something shift quietly in how startups get built and funded, and it's hard to unsee once you notice it. More founders are optimizing for engagement metrics instead of unit economics. More investors are chasing growth curves that look impressive in screenshots rather than sustainable business models. The influencer playbook has infected the boardroom.
The problem is that attention and economics are different currencies. You can build something that captures the zeitgeist and still run out of money. Virality doesn't pay server bills. A viral tweet doesn't generate recurring revenue. The metrics that get you featured in TechCrunch don't always translate to metrics that keep the lights on.
I'm not sure when the reckoning comes, but I keep thinking about all the companies that optimized for the wrong thing and eventually had to face reality. The ones that survive will be the ones that remembered economics still matter.
Has anyone else noticed this playing out in their own ecosystem? Where I keep seeing "build in public" turn into "perform in public" and funding rounds that look better on Twitter than they do on a balance sheet?
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