Now is the time to start panicking: Sequoia

Sequoia Capital, arguably Silicon Valley’s most prestigious VC firm (they were the first investors in both Yahoo and Google) called a crisis meeting today of its portfolio companies, preaching that the entire industry is facing an abyss.

According to reports of the meeting, first reported by GigaOm, and confirmed by VentureBeat, attendees were greeted by a gravestone with “RIP Good Times” written on it. The meeting lasted several hours, and attendees were given a bleak message, including things could get a lot worse than people think, and it will be a more protracted downturn.

Companies were told that they must immediately cut costs, and to figure out ways to survive and emerge at the other end of this downturn, which could last years. Speakers discussed ways of cutting costs across various sections of each business.

Om Malik points out that Sequoia has held an identical meeting before: right before the first tech boom went bust.

There’s opportunities and risks in this marketplace, as we’ve covered previously, and this could be a case of Sequoia being overly cautious, after all, it’s better to make these calls now and prepare for the worst, rather than waiting for it to happen. However, who am I to argue with a team like Sequoia. The sky is falling. Start panicking.