Analysis and commentary on the business of technology

The Bay Table

From ZIRP to SVB to Figma, and the teenagers asking whether college is worth the wait.

Money, manias and the young

  • Startups raised more in nine months of 2021 than in any full year before, on money that was about to get dearer.
  • Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors; startups should learn the lesson the rescue cannot teach.
  • Figma's debut shows public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them.

In this issue

Leaders

  1. Christie's auction house on King Street, London

    NFTs and ownership

    Right-click, save

    The $69.3m paid for Beeple's collage buys a verifiable record of who owns a picture the whole world can still look at, which is a real novelty but not remotely worth the price, and buyers should insist on being told what the receipt actually covers

    11 March 2021

  2. Credit Suisse's building on Paradeplatz in Zurich

    Archegos and the banks

    Margin for error

    The collapse of Archegos shows that banks, not regulators, were the only ones who could see a family office's leveraged swaps, and the law should make them say what they see

    30 March 2021

  3. A Rivian R1T electric pickup truck

    Rivian's listing

    If you build it

    Investors who pay a Detroit-sized price for a firm that has delivered 156 pickups are buying a story, and should demand that the story be audited like a factory.

    10 November 2021

  4. The United States Treasury building in Washington, DC

    Algorithmic stablecoins

    Dollar days

    Congress should stop letting tokens that promise a dollar without holding one call themselves stable, and write rules by what a coin promises rather than by who issues it.

    13 May 2022

  5. A Klarna office building in Linden, Germany, with the company's sign above the entrance

    Klarna and credit

    Owe, owe, owe

    Klarna's listing at a third of its private-market peak shows that buy-now-pay-later is a lender's business, and its customers and regulators should treat it as one

    10 September 2025

Business & Finance

  1. Memorial Church at Stanford University

    Student founders · Terman

    Tune in, drop out

    Student debt makes skipping university look shrewd, but the best evidence says successful founders are closer to 45 than 19, so the case for dropping out is narrower than its fans claim.

    16 August 2019

  2. A WeWork coworking space on an upper floor of Salesforce Tower in San Francisco

    WeWork · Giannini

    Out of office

    The collapse of WeWork's flotation is not a failure of public markets but their finest hour: investors read the prospectus and declined.

    30 September 2019

  3. Harvard Yard in summer, with its brick halls and lawns

    Campuses close · Terman

    Zoom, zoom, zoom

    The class of 2020 is learning that a degree bundles a lecture with a place and a crowd, and universities should now say which parts of the bill they are still delivering.

    20 March 2020

  4. A person watching video on a smartphone

    Quibi · Giannini

    Short, sharp, shut

    Quibi's failure is not a verdict on short video but on a business that spent $1.75bn before asking anyone what they wanted.

    22 October 2020

  5. A GameStop sign seen from below against the sky

    Retail trading · Giannini

    Short changed

    Robinhood's curbs on GameStop were forced by plumbing, not conspiracy, but a market whose settlement lags its apps has no business promising instant access.

    29 January 2021

  6. The facade of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C.

    SPACs and the SEC · Giannini

    Warrant officers

    The SEC staff's warrant ruling is a footnote with teeth, and the SPAC boom should be allowed to cool under it.

    13 April 2021

  7. The Nasdaq MarketSite building and its video tower in Times Square, New York

    Coinbase's listing · Giannini

    Going direct

    Coinbase has shown that a company can go public without paying a bank to guess its price, but the first day showed how much guessing the market itself does.

    14 April 2021

  8. Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, the street where many venture-capital firms have their offices

    Venture capital · Giannini

    The roaring 2021s

    Startups have raised more in nine months than in any full year before, and the boom rests on a price of money that is about to change.

    14 October 2021

  9. FTX Arena in downtown Miami, Florida

    FTX · Giannini

    Token gesture

    FTX's collapse needs no new crypto law, only the enforcement of old rules about whose money is whose, and a little more suspicion from investors.

    11 November 2022

  10. The ornate stone facade of the Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan, headquarters of New York City's education department

    ChatGPT in schools · Terman

    Cheat sheet

    New York's ban on ChatGPT protects nothing it claims to protect, and schools would do better to teach pupils to catch the bot's mistakes than to pretend it is not there.

    6 January 2023

  11. The sandstone arches and courtyard of the Main Quad at Stanford University

    Skipping university · Terman

    Class dismissed

    Americans are leaving college and starting firms at record rates, and cheap AI will make that trade more tempting, but a degree remains the better bet for most would-be founders.

    8 February 2023

  12. The former Silicon Valley Bank headquarters at 3003 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, California

    Silicon Valley Bank · Giannini

    A run for their money

    Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors, but startups should learn the lesson that rescue cannot teach them.

    13 March 2023

  13. A promotional motorised shopping trolley bearing the Instacart carrot logo, with passengers on board, on a street in Miami, Florida

    Instacart's IPO · Giannini

    Cart blanche

    Instacart's listing proves that the window for technology flotations is open again, but only for firms willing to accept what the market will pay.

    19 September 2023

  14. The facade of the US Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, DC

    Bitcoin ETFs · Giannini

    Coin of the realm

    The SEC was right to let spot bitcoin ETFs trade, but it should stop pretending a court did not force its hand.

    11 January 2024

  15. The New York Stock Exchange building on Wall Street, New York

    Reddit's IPO · Giannini

    Upvoted

    Reddit was right to let its users buy in, but a flotation that leaves control with insiders is a poll in which only some votes count.

    21 March 2024

  16. Stanford University's campus seen from the top of Hoover Tower

    Thiel Fellowship · Terman

    Double or quits

    Peter Thiel has doubled the price of dropping out just as AI makes small teams mighty, yet students are drifting back to campus, and on the evidence they are right to.

    22 May 2025

  17. The neoclassical facade of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, hung with a large American flag

    Initial public offerings · Giannini

    Pop idol

    Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them.

    31 July 2025

  18. A miner holding a canary in a small cage in a coal mine

    AI and young workers · Terman

    Canary in the cubicle

    A Stanford study finds that young workers in AI-exposed jobs are being hired less, which is worth taking seriously, but the evidence is too thin to justify rules against the technology.

    28 August 2025

Policy & Regulation

  1. The Great Dome of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge

    Foreign students and America · Terman

    Leave to remain

    America nearly told 1.1m international students to go home over a technicality, and the founders it would have lost are worth far more than the rule's tidiness.

    14 July 2020

  2. The columned west facade of the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC

    Student loans and the courts · Terman

    Debt of honour

    The Supreme Court was right to stop the president cancelling $400bn of student debt by himself, but Congress should now fix the lending that created the debt instead of sending taxpayers the bill.

    30 June 2023

  3. Rows of students seated at desks in a classroom

    California's school phones · Terman

    Calling time

    California is right to make every district write a phone policy, and right to stop there; the next generation of founders will need its attention more than its apps.

    23 September 2024

  4. Parliament House in Canberra at dusk, lit against a darkening sky

    Australia's social-media ban · Terman

    Sweet sixteen

    Australia's under-16 ban answers a real collective-action problem, but it fines platforms for an age check nobody has yet shown can work, and should have waited for the trial.

    29 November 2024

Youth

  1. Students at desks in a high-school biology classroom

    Teens and chatbots

    Dog ate my homework

    More than half of American teenagers now use chatbots for schoolwork, and schools that treat this as a cheating epidemic are measuring the wrong thing.

    24 February 2026

  2. MIT Building 10 and the Great Dome in Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Anysphere and Cursor

    Cursor on the quad

    Four MIT students built one of the fastest-growing software firms on record, then sold it to a buyer with its own models, which shows how thin the moat was.

    14 August 2026

  3. Walls of screens showing live games and betting odds inside a Las Vegas sportsbook

    Prediction markets

    Swap meet

    Raising the minimum age on Kalshi to 21 would be tidy and mostly beside the point, because the product is a sportsbook with a federal licence and its youngest customers are its smallest problem.

    9 October 2026

  4. A student using a laptop

    AI side hustles

    Selling the shovels

    The surest earner in the AI-business boom is the person selling the course, and young would-be founders should price the pitch by the regulators' record, not by the screenshots.

    15 October 2026

  5. A card payment terminal showing contactless and chip-and-PIN slots, with Visa and Mastercard stickers

    Teen fintech

    Cards on the table

    Banking apps for teenagers teach money management about as well as financial education ever has, which is to say barely, and their real product is a customer who stays until 18 and beyond.

    17 October 2026

The world this week

Student founders. Student debt makes skipping university look shrewd, but the best evidence says successful founders are closer to 45 than 19, so the case for dropping out is narrower than its fans claim. Read more on Tune in, drop out

WeWork. The collapse of WeWork's flotation is not a failure of public markets but their finest hour: investors read the prospectus and declined. Read more on Out of office

Campuses close. The class of 2020 is learning that a degree bundles a lecture with a place and a crowd, and universities should now say which parts of the bill they are still delivering. Read more on Zoom, zoom, zoom

Foreign students and America. America nearly told 1.1m international students to go home over a technicality, and the founders it would have lost are worth far more than the rule's tidiness. Read more on Leave to remain

Quibi. Quibi's failure is not a verdict on short video but on a business that spent $1.75bn before asking anyone what they wanted. Read more on Short, sharp, shut

Retail trading. Robinhood's curbs on GameStop were forced by plumbing, not conspiracy, but a market whose settlement lags its apps has no business promising instant access. Read more on Short changed

NFTs and ownership. The $69.3m paid for Beeple's collage buys a verifiable record of who owns a picture the whole world can still look at, which is a real novelty but not remotely worth the price, and buyers should insist on being told what the receipt actually covers Read more on Right-click, save

Archegos and the banks. The collapse of Archegos shows that banks, not regulators, were the only ones who could see a family office's leveraged swaps, and the law should make them say what they see Read more on Margin for error

SPACs and the SEC. The SEC staff's warrant ruling is a footnote with teeth, and the SPAC boom should be allowed to cool under it. Read more on Warrant officers

Coinbase's listing. Coinbase has shown that a company can go public without paying a bank to guess its price, but the first day showed how much guessing the market itself does. Read more on Going direct

Venture capital. Startups have raised more in nine months than in any full year before, and the boom rests on a price of money that is about to change. Read more on The roaring 2021s

Rivian's listing. Investors who pay a Detroit-sized price for a firm that has delivered 156 pickups are buying a story, and should demand that the story be audited like a factory. Read more on If you build it

Algorithmic stablecoins. Congress should stop letting tokens that promise a dollar without holding one call themselves stable, and write rules by what a coin promises rather than by who issues it. Read more on Dollar days

FTX. FTX's collapse needs no new crypto law, only the enforcement of old rules about whose money is whose, and a little more suspicion from investors. Read more on Token gesture

ChatGPT in schools. New York's ban on ChatGPT protects nothing it claims to protect, and schools would do better to teach pupils to catch the bot's mistakes than to pretend it is not there. Read more on Cheat sheet

Skipping university. Americans are leaving college and starting firms at record rates, and cheap AI will make that trade more tempting, but a degree remains the better bet for most would-be founders. Read more on Class dismissed

Silicon Valley Bank. Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors, but startups should learn the lesson that rescue cannot teach them. Read more on A run for their money

Student loans and the courts. The Supreme Court was right to stop the president cancelling $400bn of student debt by himself, but Congress should now fix the lending that created the debt instead of sending taxpayers the bill. Read more on Debt of honour

Instacart's IPO. Instacart's listing proves that the window for technology flotations is open again, but only for firms willing to accept what the market will pay. Read more on Cart blanche

Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC was right to let spot bitcoin ETFs trade, but it should stop pretending a court did not force its hand. Read more on Coin of the realm

Reddit's IPO. Reddit was right to let its users buy in, but a flotation that leaves control with insiders is a poll in which only some votes count. Read more on Upvoted

California's school phones. California is right to make every district write a phone policy, and right to stop there; the next generation of founders will need its attention more than its apps. Read more on Calling time

Australia's social-media ban. Australia's under-16 ban answers a real collective-action problem, but it fines platforms for an age check nobody has yet shown can work, and should have waited for the trial. Read more on Sweet sixteen

Thiel Fellowship. Peter Thiel has doubled the price of dropping out just as AI makes small teams mighty, yet students are drifting back to campus, and on the evidence they are right to. Read more on Double or quits

Initial public offerings. Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them. Read more on Pop idol

AI and young workers. A Stanford study finds that young workers in AI-exposed jobs are being hired less, which is worth taking seriously, but the evidence is too thin to justify rules against the technology. Read more on Canary in the cubicle

Klarna and credit. Klarna's listing at a third of its private-market peak shows that buy-now-pay-later is a lender's business, and its customers and regulators should treat it as one Read more on Owe, owe, owe

Teens and chatbots. More than half of American teenagers now use chatbots for schoolwork, and schools that treat this as a cheating epidemic are measuring the wrong thing. Read more on Dog ate my homework

Anysphere and Cursor. Four MIT students built one of the fastest-growing software firms on record, then sold it to a buyer with its own models, which shows how thin the moat was. Read more on Cursor on the quad

Prediction markets. Raising the minimum age on Kalshi to 21 would be tidy and mostly beside the point, because the product is a sportsbook with a federal licence and its youngest customers are its smallest problem. Read more on Swap meet

AI side hustles. The surest earner in the AI-business boom is the person selling the course, and young would-be founders should price the pitch by the regulators' record, not by the screenshots. Read more on Selling the shovels

Teen fintech. Banking apps for teenagers teach money management about as well as financial education ever has, which is to say barely, and their real product is a customer who stays until 18 and beyond. Read more on Cards on the table