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Last week, distributed a memo to founders and CEOs of its portfolio companies about the worsening economic situation as coronavirus spreads, and many other media outlets reported.

I鈥檝e also seen posts all over from people cautioning about a slowdown in VC funding and reacting with concern to the tumultuous state of the public markets.

So I decided to ask around myself.

I didn鈥檛 get as many replies as I expected. Perhaps folks just don鈥檛 want to share their revised strategies. Perhaps they鈥檙e still trying to figure it out. I鈥檓 not sure, but for now, here鈥檚 what , general partner of Austin-based, told me on the topic. (For those that don’t know,聽Silverton Partners is arguably one of Austin鈥檚 most active early-stage VC firms with $384 million under management.)

Warning to executives

Flager shared with me some highlights of a note he sent out to key executives across Silverton鈥檚 portfolio this week.

Essentially, Flager said it is 鈥減rudent to assume that fundraising velocity will slow from the fast pace we鈥檝e seen as investors take time to process the new macroeconomic environment.鈥�

He pointed to what transpired economically in 2001 (after 9/11) and 2009 (after the economic downturn) as a reference to what people should likely expect to happen this year.

鈥淢ost investors react to uncertainty with increased caution. Travel restrictions will also make it more difficult to meet investors,鈥� Flager wrote.

Additionally, he said that valuations will likely see pressure from multiple angles.

鈥淔irst, volatility in the stock market and declining multiples will inevitably play through to the private markets. Companies that haven鈥檛 鈥榞otten the memo鈥� and are still recklessly buying growth and burning lots of cash doing so will increasingly be viewed as risky and will see that risk premium reflected in their value,鈥� Flager continued in his note to executives across Silverton鈥檚 portfolio. 鈥淚n some cases these businesses will not be able to attract additional investment at any price. Do not be one of them.鈥�

He also suggested that if a startup in Silverton鈥檚 portfolio is in the middle of closing a round or in the latter stages of a fundraising process, 鈥渋t may make sense to take additional capital.鈥�

鈥淢ore runway in this environment could mean the difference between life and death for your business,鈥� Flager said.

In September 2019, we covered how Silverton had filed paperwork signaling its intent to raise not just one, but a pair of new venture capital funds. The firm was reportedly aiming to raise $120 million for its sixth fund, as well as for a $20 million 鈥渙pportunity fund.鈥�

In May 2018, we reported on the firm closing on its fifth fund, in which it raised $108 million in an oversubscribed round of funding.

Silverton has made 131 knownover its 14-year lifetime at least 42 of them 鈥� and had 28 known . Startups it has backed include insurance comparison marketplace , as well as and , a woman鈥檚 shaving products startup that was recently acquired by P&G.

Some of Silverton’s more recent investments include participating in Austin-based last-mile delivery startup $10.5 million and cybersecurity company $21 million Series B raise (which was led by , 鈥檚 venture arm).

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Today, though, it’s making waves for different reasons. Stock markets around the world roil and churn as investors grapple with the implications of a particularly virulent and aggressive respiratory virus formally known as SARS-CoV-2, which originated in China but is now rippling across the planet.

This is the sort of moment some risk-loving swing traders live for, the sort of moment others dread, the sort of moment where some people want to watch their stocks and make some money moves. On Monday, , 10.8 billion shares traded hands, 50 percent higher than the 50-day moving average.

None of those shares were traded on Robinhood, because Robinhood has been in the midst of a prolonged service outage that stretched into a second day.

On Tuesday morning, stated that it was experiencing a system-wide outage affecting all facets of its service except for market data and dividends. During this time, I attempted to sign up for a Robinhood account for testing purposes. I succeeded in entering my information and creating the account, but was faced with a series of error messages when I tried to hook up my bank account and perform other functions on the company’s mobile application.

As of about 11 AM Central Time on Tuesday, Robinhood’s status page indicates that all systems are operational with the exception of its email support system, which had been experiencing reliability issues since Monday morning.

The company said it will work with customers “on a case-by-case basis” and possibly offer compensation or other forms of restitution to people whose trading accounts were affected by the company’s system outage.

Robinhood was one of several companies rumored to seek IPOs in 2020. With the reputational damage and the as-yet unknown costs stemming from its early March outage, its path to public markets now looks decidedly more uphill.

According to SA国际传媒 data, Robinhood has raised from investors including , , and .

Robinhood was valued at $7.6 billion in its Series E round, which netted the company $373 million over two tranches. SA国际传媒 News covered the first $323 million close in late July 2019, and the company to extend its Series E round at the end of October 2019.

滨濒濒耻蝉迟谤补迟颈辞苍:听

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The comes as the company closes a $1.75 billion credit line from and soon after WeWork appointed a new CEO, real estate executive Sandeep Mathrani.

As part of the 5-year plan, the company said it expects to post its first-ever quarter with $1 billion in revenue this year. In 2021, it鈥檚 aiming to be adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) positive, and in 2022 WeWork鈥檚 goal is to be free cash flow positive.

Put simply, free cash flow means a company is 鈥済enerating more cash than is used to run the business and reinvest to grow the business,鈥� according to .

When WeWork filed its S-1 document with the , it was clear the company was burning cash. You can read more about the state of WeWork鈥檚 finances when it filed to go public here. But the summary of its cash situation is that its operations were consuming a lot of cash ($198.7 million in H1 2019), and the company鈥檚 investing cash was even more negative ($2.36 billion in H1 2019).

Looking ahead, WeWork is also aiming for 1 million memberships in 2023, and having $1 billion of free cash flow in 2024. The company had more than 662,000 total memberships by the end of last year.

WeWork attempted to go public last fall but had to scrap its IPO after concerns came up about the company鈥檚 finances and corporate governance. Since then, its valuation plummeted, former CEO Adam Neumann stepped down (and was reportedly being paid well to do so, though the company鈥檚 chairman told Monday that the billion-dollar figure wasn鈥檛 true), and took control of the company.

It laid out a turnaround strategy, which included divesting acquired companies that weren鈥檛 part of WeWork鈥檚 鈥渃ore business.鈥�

WeWork had 739 locations as of the end of last year, in 140 cities and 37 countries, according to the company.

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, a defense company founded by ex-Facebook VR executive , is working to be on the border of innovation. Literally.

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The company is working to create a virtual border wall with its surveillance technology for government use – and a16z just invested in it, valuing it at $1 billion post-money, . Anduril did not immediately respond for comment regarding the new, reported financing round.

The Orange, California-based company has to date for its artificial intelligence technology. Investors beyond a16z include , , and .

The latter investor was part of Anduril鈥檚 DNA earlier than the company鈥檚 formation, quite literally. , which Luckey started in 2012, was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for . The founder was eventually ousted from the social media company that he funded an anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Trump organization with ties to racism.

But Oculus gave Luckey insight on the commercial aspect of augmented reality and virtual reality, and led Anduril鈥檚 Series B. The size of that round was undisclosed.

Anduril states on its website that it 鈥渟elf-funds鈥� all of its development, helping it launch software speedier than if it went through the government-first development process.

But Anduril was not the only late-stage round that a16z was involved with this week.

Samsara

Earlier this week , a company focused on industrial IoT sensors, blending hardware and software together, . The new capital values the four-year-old startup at $6.3 billion, according to .

a16z, which led the company鈥檚 and co-led its put money in the new round. and led Samsara鈥檚 newest round, which included more capital from a16z and .

The firm鈥檚 new $6.3 billion valuation is sharply higher than its preceding $3.6 billion rally. In less than a year, therefore, Samsara managed to grow its value by 75 percent. Such sharp rallies in value among high-growth private companies are not rare in 2019, but to see a company as highly-valued as Samsara add $2.7 billion to its worth in ten months is notable.

Also this quarter, a16z has invested in , the , , FlyHomes, Singularity 6, Hipcamp, Freenome, and Substack, among others. The investor currently participates in about 20 known investments per quarter.

Finally

To close, it seems that the unicorn era of booming valuations with big checks to match is still on a spree. And a diverse one at that.

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