Scared Unicorn

Image Credits: Karolina Noring (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Software valuations are testing new levels of price depression as stocks look for a comeback on Friday.

The decline in the value of public software companies has been a key leading indicator for the present slowdown in venture capital activity, for example.

Snapshots can be provided by day-to-day coverage. I want to slow down and take a closer look at the valuations of software.

The smaller reality of SaaS valuations

There is no need to be happy about how much investors got things wrong last year. We don't need to add to the lecture notes provided by public-market immiseration of recent tech IPOs or the panic that overpriced unicorns feel as they compare their revenue base to their sticker price because markets have a way of teaching their own lessons.